MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) — Public housing tenants in East Harlem are once again facing bitter cold inside their homes due to repeated heat outages that leave their apartments colder than the chill outside. Residents at Lehman Village Houses say they are tired of temporary fixes that fail to provide reliable warmth during harsh winter conditions.
In a chilly apartment at Lehman Village, tenant advocate Jenice Zayas has found a small way to fight the cold.
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“So, when I’m really, really cold, I create some kind of warmth, it’s mind over matter,” she explains. “I go into my YouTube channel, and I put on my fireplace.” But she knows this makeshift comfort can’t replace dependable heat, which has become a scarce luxury for many.
PIX11 News has been covering this story for years and reported on the latest outage Friday night during the 10 o’clock newscast. Jenice says the heat went out again just before midnight, leaving hundreds of residents with freezing apartments and no hot water. “The minute that they left yesterday, within an hour, we had no heat, no hot water,” she says. When asked if this happened after the 10 o’clock news, she replies, “Less than 47 minutes.”…