On a day when wind chills were below -15 in New York City, thousands of public housing residents in the New York City have been without heat Monday.
"I'm getting sick. No heat, there's no temperature in my body," one resident at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses complex in Soundview said earlier in the day. "I get cold. I'm anemic, so I get cold quick."
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) reported that, as of 9:59 p.m., heat and hot water was out at the entire Kingsborough Houses complex in Crown Heights. More than 2,300 people in the complex's 16 buildings.
Until 9 p.m., according to NYCHA, the entire Sumner Houses complex in Bedford-Stuyvesant was also without heat and hot water, as well as the Bushwick Houses from about 9:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Combined, the three complexes house more than 7,300 New Yorkers.
In addition, NYCHA said that by 3:20 p.m. it had restored heat and hot water at the Sotomayor Houses after an outage began in the morning. But some residents told NY1 they were receiving only partial heat, and their outages began days ago. More than 3,200 people live in the buildings.
"The hot water went off at around 7:30 last night. It came on back after midnight, about 1 o'clock," one resident recalled. "We haven't had any heat today. It came on at about 3:30. It's still not totally up.
"It's as cold in here as it is outside," she added. "You can't sleep well, you have several blankets on your bed. It's miserable."
NYCHA said at least 10 other developments that have had heat or hot water issues since Sunday.
Sources said housing developments have gone without heat or hot water for a variety of reasons, including low pressure in the heating plant (Sotomayor Houses), an electrical issue (Bushwick Houses), and a defective water heater (Hope Gardens complex).
If you're experiencing issues with heat and hot water, you're urged to contact NYCHA customer service using the MyNYCHA app, or call 311.
Residents at the Sotomayor Houses, however, told us they continue to put in NYCHA tickets and call 311 but the process to get help takes a very long time.