NYCHA tenants in Queens say they've been without cooking gas for weeks
Tenants in NYCHA's Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City say they've been living without gas in their units for several weeks.
They're now sounding the alarm about this and other issues that have gone unfixed by the housing agency.
NYCHA responds to outage
Tenants said they were told that the gas blew out in parts of the buildings at 41-01 and 41-02 10th St. due to stoves being changed in a nearby school.
NYCHA told CBS News New York in a statement:
"NYCHA comprises 335 developments across its public housing and PACT portfolios and is home to approximately 335,000 residents. Since 2019, NYCHA has worked with federal oversight to make tangible improvements inside the homes and buildings of NYCHA residents, as evidenced by progress made in the pillar areas of the 2019 HUD Agreement. Gas service interruptions and restoration work are a matter of public safety and involve multiple partners and steps, including shutting off service, making necessary repairs, inspections, and coordinating with the service vendors, in order to safely restore service as quickly as possible. These processes are underway at Queensbridge and Ravenswood."
NYCHA provided tenants with hot plates due to the service interruption, but residents aren't satisfied.
"Tomorrow's Mother's Day. What can I cook for my mother on this?" tenant Antonette Williams said.
She added, "I have to just re-think how I went grocery shopping this month, you know?"
"NYCHA management is failing our residents"
Assembly candidate Mary Jobaida toured the apartments on Saturday, saying that NYCHA tenants should be given the same rights as private renters.
"The NYCHA management is failing our residents here," she said.
Williams said after meeting with NYCHA earlier this week, residents received a note that abatement work is expected to begin next week, but the note never specified that the gas issue was being addressed.
Tenant Sabrina Mangaroo, 69, said the gas shutoff with no timeline for fixing it just adds to mounting complaints and unanswered service tickets from longtime tenants.
"I've been having problems getting my rent paid. We're trying to do everything we possibly can, but we have a right to life," Mangaroo said.
