Harlem apartments nearing one month with broken boiler
NEW YORK - A group of Harlem neighbors on West 118th Street are going on one month without hot water or heat, as they wait for repairs to their boiler.
Violation citations pile up on the wall inside Cleveland Manley's front door at 275 W. 118th St., showing complaints dating back to Nov. 2. Another notice from Shinda Management Corporation reads, in part, "Sorry for the inconvenience."
"They keep saying they're working on it, they're working on it," Manley said. "And I'm having to boil water and keep my oven on."
Manley, the tenant association president for the four affected connected buildings, has been running his oven about 15 hours a day the old school way, with a pot of water inside to keep it from combusting.
"My worst fear is two worst fears," he said. "Carbon monoxide or it'll be a fire."
Manley's neighbor Kevin Johnson has a similar set-up in the building next door.
"Boiling water all the time, keep a pan in here with water and stay warm," Johnson said at his oven.
Canaan Baptist Church bought the buildings under the leadership of Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker as part of its outreach ministry to provide affordable housing. A worker for Shinda Management was inside the senior center named for Walker across the street from the apartment buildings, but she would not speak with CBS New York.
Another Shinda employee said over the phone that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is working on the boiler and that would be the only response they could provide.
"Just like they want their rent, we just want to know when we are to receive hot water," said tenant Walter Martin, whose radiators and lights are also broken.
Neither HPD nor Canaan Baptist Church have responded to requests for comment.
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