Exclusive: Tenants fume as broken boiler creates various issues at NYCHA building in Manhattan

By NATALIE DUDDRIDGE

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    NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — Dozens of people who live at a Lower East Side NYCHA complex are fuming over a broken boiler. They say it is creating all kinds of issues, from lack of heat to mold.

Tenants told CBS2 on Tuesday they are at their breaking point.

Jose Sierra showed his crumbling walls and the overall state of disrepair inside his apartment, part of the Baruch Houses on Baruch Drive.

The latest problem is no hot water.

“I have to take water from the kitchen to take a shower,” the 82-year-old said.

“We had no heat or hot water for three weeks,” resident Dorothy Anderson said.

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Tenants blame a broken boiler that is letting off so much steam, it is decaying the outside and inside the building.

“You can really see how the wall ceilings are peeling. It is creating mildew,” resident Amber Griffith said. “People are actually inhaling that because their windows is open. It’s blowing into their apartment.”

“It is leakage and a bad odor from the hallways coming into the building from the outside, which I think is toxic sometimes. I feel sick about it,” a resident named Hector added.

A hallway is extremely humid. You can actually feel the heat coming off of one utility closet, and see the water dripping down the door onto the floor. A nearby garbage disposal is out of service, and then you can see how the steam is destroying the walls.

Tenants said they have filed dozens of complaints about all kinds of issues.

“The past two or three years we have flood in our apartment, lots of flood, toilet water,” a resident said.

While CBS2 was filming, NYCHA workers came to the building. They were asked why the repairs are taking so long, but they said they couldn’t officially comment.

So, CBS2 reached out to NYCHA’s head office. In a statement, the agency said it is working to repair a coil leak affecting hot water service to one building and also that the heating system is undergoing renovations as part of NYCHA’s Superstorm Sandy recovery program.

“They are doing the outside, but how about the inside?” Hector said.

Some tenants said they are fed up and are asking for transfers to other NYCHA buildings.

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