The city’s Housing Authority will get an infusion of $13 million to help heat homes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday.
The money — expected to be allocated in the preliminary budget — will be used to replace boiler systems with chronic outages, rent mobile boilers for emergencies, seal up windows and hire temporary repair staff, according to de Blasio’s office.
“All New Yorkers deserve heat and hot water,” de Blasio said in a statement. “While NYCHA has been working around the clock to keep our boilers working, these record cold temperatures are hard on our aging heating systems. This new investment will help us continue to respond to outages immediately, replace boilers in hardest hit buildings and keep tenants warm.”
Earlier this month, Comptroller Scott Stringer said he was launching an audit into the NYCHA heating system after “widespread reports” that tenants were without heat during the brutally cold winter.
This year, a total of 57 repair staff will be hired to respond to boiler outages and three mobile boilers will be rented. De Blasio said by renting the boilers before they’re necessarily needed, emergency response time should be cut down to under 48 hours, as opposed to the current timeline of several weeks.
In time for next year, the mayor’s office said eight boiler plants will be replaced at developments that regularly deal with outages, seven winterized boilers will be installed, and the city will purchase five mobile boilers.
