MAYOR DE BLASIO INVESTS $200 MILLION TO REPLACE BOILERS AND UPGRADE HEATING SYSTEMS AT 20 NYCHA DEVELOPMENTS

Part of the Mayor’s unprecedented investment in NYCHA including $2.1 billion in capital infrastructure and $1.6 billion in operating funds  

  Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today a $200 million investment to replace boilers and upgrade heating systems at 20 NYCHA developments experiencing chronic outages. This funding will go towards replacing outdated boilers, and modernizing heating system controls and hot water-making technology. These renovations will be finished by 2022, and will benefitting approximately 45,000 residents. Furthermore, these upgrades will help NYCHA save approximately $5 million per year in energy costs.

This latest investment brings the Mayor’s total commitment to NYCHA’s capital infrastructure to $2.1 billion from Fiscal Year 2014 to Fiscal Year 2027 and $1.6 billion in NYCHA’s operations from Fiscal Year 2014 to Fiscal Year 2022.

“Like our investment to replace aging roofs, this commitment to new heating systems cuts right to the heart of the biggest problems NYCHA residents face, and will make a difference thousands of them will feel,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “The record-setting cold this winter has hit these aging boilers and pipes hard. We’re coming to the table with real resources to attack these problems, and urge our federal and state partners to do the same.”

“The Mayor has demonstrated through his previous commitments that when NYCHA has the funding, residents get real improvements to their quality of life,” said NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye. “While the city faced one of the coldest spells in over a half century, NYCHA staff worked around the clock to keep its aging boilers running. This new investment will help us improve service to our residents and provide them with the safe, warm homes they deserve.”

Starting in Fiscal Year 2019, the $200 million will be invested over three years to do the following:

• Replace Outdated Boilers at 10 developments with chronic outages. Developments are often comprised of multiple buildings, with multiple boiler plants, and this funding will go towards installing more than 39 new boilers. The heating upgrades at the 10 additional sites below will help complement previously allocated federal funding for boiler replacements.

• Modernize Hot Water Systems at 12 developments by separating hot water from the heating boilers to reduce the strain on boilers. This will allow NYCHA staff to make repairs on the boiler system during the spring and summer without jeopardizing tenants’ access to hot water. Decoupling these systems also reduces the likelihood that tenants will simultaneously lose heat and hot water during outages.

• Install New Heating Controls at 15 developments to regulate boiler temperature. This will help NYCHA monitor performance more closely, detect possible faults earlier, reduce the strain on boilers and provide more consistent heat to tenants.

The following 20 developments will receive at least one of the aforementioned upgrades to their heating systems from City funding. The other parts of their heating system are funded by the federal government or energy performance contracts: 

• Morris I*
• Morris II*
• Taft*
• Cypress Hills*
• Farragut*
• Sotomayor Houses*
• Rangel*
• Fiorentino Plaza*
• Long Island Baptist Houses*
• Robinson*
• Astoria
• Baruch Houses Addition
• Baruch
• McKinley
• Melrose
• Pelham Parkway
• Pomonok
• Rutland Towers
• Soundview
• South Beach

These developments (*)  are receiving new boilers with City funding.

Since 2014, NYCHA has committed nearly $300 million in HUD funds to upgrade heating and plumbing at 100 boilers.  In addition, more than $100 million of the $3 billion FEMA grant for Sandy Recovery and Resilience will fund replacement of 67 boilers at 17 developments, and NYCHA’s three in-progress Energy Performance Contracts include more than $40 million in heating-related improvements.

The de Blasio Administration has made an unprecedented commitment to preserve and strengthen public housing. This latest investment brings the Administration’s total commitment to $2.1 billion to support NYCHA’s capital infrastructure from Fiscal Year 2014 to Fiscal Year 2027 and $1.6 billion to support NYCHA’s operations from Fiscal Year 2014 to Fiscal Year 2022. This investment includes $1.3 billion to fix over 900 roofs, over $500 million to repair deteriorating exterior brickwork at nearly 400 buildings, and $140 million to improve security at 15 NYCHA developments.  The City waived NYCHA’s annual PILOT and NYPD payments to the City, relieving NYCHA of nearly $100 million in operating expenses a year. In January 2018, the Mayor announced $13 million to improve NYCHA’s response to heating emergencies this winter.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

While this is a step in the right direction why has it taken four years to happen?

What are the other Approximately 130,000 other residents of NYCHA buildings suppose to do?

Wait until after 2021 when a new mayor comes in?

This is not acceptable Mayor Bill de Blasio. What has your head of NYCHA been doing the past four years other than signing off on false reports to HUD?