Hot plates and food vouchers aren’t nearly enough to placate residents of a Harlem public housing complex who have gone without gas in their apartments for nearly six weeks.
Incredibly, they may have to wait another six weeks.
Tenants at the Grant Houses on Amsterdam Ave. said they haven’t been able to use their stoves since Aug. 29, when NYCHA maintenance crews shut gas lines without any warning.
Housing officials tried to tide them over with food vouchers and hot plates, but residents have had it.
“People are in an uproar,” said Carlton Davis, president of the Grant Houses Residents Association. “Nobody mentioned about a gas leak — they just cut the gas off.”
Davis, a 40-year resident, and other tenants met with housing officials Wednesday night to try to get some answers. NYCHA reps said they were replacing leaking pipes one line at a time.
“NYCHA is working with Con Edison to restore service as quickly as possible,” a NYCHA spokeswoman said. “Repairs are underway and we expect gas to be restored by early November.
“We apologize for the impact this is having on our residents and we appreciate their patience as we resolve the issue.”
Brian Honan, director of NYCHA’s state and city legislative affairs office, said “We’re trying to be responsive.”
But residents said they have had enough of eating out.
“The holidays are coming, and I’m going to have people over,” said Terry Love, 53, said. “You have to have your stuff on.”
The offended residents also can’t help but wonder if NYCHA is trying to frustrate them to force them out of the complex, so the city can sell the buildings.
“I think they’re trying to push us out,” said Francine Lettley, 61, who has lived in the Grant Houses for 31 years. “I really do believe it. All of a sudden we’re having all these problems with the gas, the repairs, the elevators. Years ago it wasn’t like this, all of a sudden it’s like this.”
NYCHA rejected that notion.
“These rumors are 100% not true. Every step NYCHA is taking under NextGeneration NYCHA, the authority’s 10-year strategic plan, is to prevent the demolition and abandonment of public housing like other cities have done,” a NYCHA rep said. “Residents can be assured they are completely untrue and baseless.”
