NEW YORK - With the start of summer just a few days away, the city housing authority has unveiled a new plan to help its residents beat the heat.

NYCHA is launching two new pilots that would provide free air conditioning to some residents.

The program is starting first at the Meltzer Towers Senior Housing on the Lower East Side, and the Fort Independence Houses in the Bronx.

At Meltzer, tenants will be offered brand-new air conditioner units that will be linked to a central control system.

It's meant to ensure apartments are kept at a safe temperature during dangerous heat waves.

And at Fort Independence, select tenants are going to be offered what NYCHA is calling "air source heat pumps", equipment that can be used to either cool or heat an apartment.

“When it gets really hot the weather, they have to go downstairs to the office to sit there and some of them probably have to suffer in their apartments. This building, it is a great building but it is very hot," said one resident.

"A lot of people who live here are really not very mobile. This is a very old New York building. We know how hot they can get and I think that every senior citizen who lives here deserves to be comfortable," said another resident.

The programs are expected to kick off in a few weeks.