Rosemary Hernandez says she’s been forced to cook most of her meals on a hot plate since June.

“Using these two hot plates, using my air fryer and if I want to use the microwave, like if I order pizza rolls and stuff like that, I just use that,” said Hernandez.

That’s because she and other residents at the Stapleton Houses have been without cooking gas for months. They say they’ve had no response from NYCHA as to when the gas will be back on.

“I’m on dialysis. Look at this, and I have to eat healthy foods for me to survive and I can’t eat outdoor food because there’s so much salt,” said Hernandez. 

NYCHA provided residents like Tashika Luckey with a hot plate and slow cooker.

“I have to cook early in the morning while the kids were at school and then heat up their food through a microwave, so it’s hard,” said Luckey. 

Besides knowing that the food takes long to cook, Tashika said feeding her seven kids and seven grandkids has not only become costly, but unhealthy.

“I’ve been buying food out. If I don’t buy food out, I get stuff that I can make quick on the stove or we can make in the microwave and I think that’s not healthy for the kids,” said Luckey.

Sources say the outage is affecting 96 apartments and is due to a routine gas inspection that is currently in the asbestos remediation stage. A spokesperson for the housing authority said in a statement, “While we understand gas service interruptions are inconvenient, we also want to ensure our residents’ safety as we work to restore service as quickly as possible.” 

But residents like Hernandez and Luckey say they want transparency and a quicker and better solution.

“Then they expect us to pay our rent. Provide us with the gas and if not give us the electric stove,” said Hernandez.

“Do you feel that this is right? Do you feel that we should live like this, as human beings?” said Luckey.