NYCHA residents without heat, hot water in several Brooklyn buildings during bitter cold snap
BUSHWICK, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Thousands of NYCHA residents are struggling to stay warm during this bitterly cold weather as several locations have been without heat and hot water.
Thankfully residents at the Bushwick Houses have been slowly seeing the heat and hot water come back on Monday afternoon.
Just for good measure, the pot of water on the stove still boils until the heat fully returns to Damon Davis' apartment in the Bushwick Houses complex.
"I can only speak for my apartment, but I know it was really cold last night so I would assume nobody else had heat either because we didn't have none," Davis said.
First thing Monday morning, the Legal Aid Society revealed in a tweet that some 6,000 NYCHA residents in four different locations were without heat or hot water.
That situation left Thelma Cooper shivering in her apartment.
"Unbearable, that I had to add extra covers on my bed and you see how I am sitting out here now freezing," Cooper said.
Bundled up in extra layers, others were also using alternate heat sources like the stove, which the FDNY warns against because of carbon monoxide dangers.
"But I'm glad it's on now," Davis said.
NYCHA posted back to Legal Aid that repairs were being made at all sites, along with extra heating staff and more at the call center being added.
Residents at a NYCHA building on Dean Street in Brownsville say they were also still struggling to stay warm after losing heat a week ago Sunday.
"We pay for our electricity in this building so it's not fair that we have to have heaters going so we can have heat in the apartment," resident Amber Sanchez said.
Sanchez, her father Francisco and her daughter Denise Mercedes were using three extra heaters and boiling water.
"I put up the first cover, it feels so cold that I ask my mom can I sleep with her," Mercedes said.
"I can't have her sleep alone in her own bed because it's too cold," Sanchez said.
NYCHA has been checking the Brownsville site too, but residents say the heat had only increased a small amount during the bitter cold snap.
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