Hundreds Of Chelsea NYCHA Residents Had No Hot Water For 24 Hours

CHELSEA, NY — Nearly 1,000 residents at four public housing buildings in Chelsea had their hot water cut in unplanned outages Sunday afternoon, NYCHA records show.

The hot water outages impacted more than 500 apartments at Fulton Houses for nearly 24 hours — forcing children to go to school and adults to work without proper showers for Monday, according to tenants' association president Miguel Acevedo.

"I don't think that's fair and it's not right," Acevedo told Patch.

According to Acevedo, a steam leak set off the hot water outages Sunday.

When he called New York City Housing Authority, he was told there was no staffer available to fix the problem over the weekend.

"This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of," Acevedo, who lives at the complex on West 17th Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues, said. "There's no excuse to tell me that you don't have a person that could come to respond."

Service was restored by Monday afternoon, Acevedo said. And fortunately, it happened on a warmer day.

"The heating season didn't even start yet and we're already getting heating problems," he said.

A NYCHA spokesperson said, "Hot water service at Fulton Houses has been restored following completed repairs to a broken sectional valve discovered during a routine inspection. Providing our residents with uninterrupted services is a top priority at NYCHA. Staff are currently visiting apartments to monitor service."

The 11- building complex is in the midst of a hotly contested city plan to demolish two smaller Fulton Houses buildings and replace them with larger buildings with a mix of market rate and low-income apartments developed by a private partner in order to raise $168 million for the complex. Residents at the demolished-and-rebuilt properties would be relocated to a newly built apartment building at Fulton Houses before demolition would happen, city officials have said.

The plan has received major pushback from some tenants who have been rallying against the public-private partnership and conversion to a federal program called Rental Assistance Demonstration, City Limits reported last month. Six Manhattan politicians, including Rep. Jerry Nadler and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, have said they do not support the plan, which would relocate 72 families, Politico reported.

But for Acevedo, the latest hot water outages are the "perfect example" of why he has come out in support of the proposal.

"It's not something I want but in reality it's something we need here," he said. "If it's not done sooner rather than later I don't know what's going to happen to Fulton Houses."

Deputy Mayor Vicki Been is expected to begin looking for a developer for the project by the end of October, sources at a meeting with Been told Politico last week.