The Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed this weekend to pay $100 million for new boilers at dozens of public housing developments damaged by Superstorm Sandy after Councilman Ritchie Torres, chair of the Council’s comittee on public housing, held a Public Housing Committee hearing in a Coney Island NYCHA development last month to raise awareness of the issue.
“Less than a month ago, NYCHA testified that it would take two additional heating seasons to replace the temporary boilers installed after Superstorm Sandy,” said the Councilman. “This decision will bring critical resources to bear on addressing the most basic needs of public housing residents who continue to struggle seventeen months after Sandy.”
The Council meeting at the Carey Gardens Community Center in Brooklyn. Photo c/o Politicker.
At the meeting, testimony was heard from local residents and reports on the provisional heating systems and mobile boilers still being used in 16 City housing developments. Hurricane Sandy impacted eighty thousand residents in 423 NYCHA buildings around the city.
“Superstorm Sandy impacted tens of thousands of public housing residents; sixteen months later many are still living without such basic amenities as reliable heat,” said Torres regarding the Brooklyn hearing. “This hearing, the first of its kind to be held at a NYCHA development, is an important opportunity to directly engage affected communities in the oversight of the recovery process. As Chair of the Committee on Public Housing I will do everything in my capacity to hold NYCHA accountable and ensure its responsiveness to the needs of its tenants.”
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