In a new report, Comptroller Brad Lander found that in some buildings with chronic heat issues, the city’s housing agency failed to escalate violations.

With additional reporting by Isabella Mason and Nalani Markland as part of City Limits’ youth journalism training program, CLARIFY.

After flirting with spring weather earlier this week, it was a stiff 28 degrees when New Yorkers awoke Monday morning. In some New York City apartment buildings, tenants also woke up without heat.

A new report from NYC Comptroller Brad Lander says that some buildings with chronic heat issues are not resolved for years on end, and in some cases did not receive escalated intervention by the city’s housing agency.

New Yorkers have filed 203,920 more heat and hot water complaints on average the past two “heat seasons,” which run from October to May. During that time, landlords are required to keep apartments at 68 degrees fahrenheit or higher during the day, and 62 degrees at night.

And while the department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) is issuing more violations and hiring more inspectors, some buildings are still falling through the cracks, the report points out.

In 2023, the Comptroller’s office identified 1,238 buildings that had five or more heat and hot water violations each of the past seven years. Two years later, 901 of those buildings were still on the list. More troublingly, the report found 180 of those buildings had received no intervention from HPD in that period.

Average Heat and Hot Water Complaints, 2017-2021 vs 2022-2024 Heat Seasons
SOURCE: NYC Comptroller’s Office

“The City still has not turned up the heat on landlords who leave their tenants in the cold,” said Comptroller Lander in a statement. “Far too often, buildings remain cold year after year after year.” 

HPD pushed back against what they called “misconceptions” in the report.

“HPD’s enforcement team works diligently every heat season to ensure New Yorkers live in safe, warm homes—responding to complaints, inspecting buildings, issuing violations, and taking swift action to hold landlords accountable when they fail to meet their obligations,” deputy press secretary Natasha Kersey in a statement to City Limits. “We will continue to strengthen our response every year, using every tool available to protect tenants and improve housing conditions.” 

HPD issued 48 percent more heat violations in fiscal year 2024 than the year prior, up to 9,204 from 6,211—an increase the agency said is due to hiring 100 new inspectors and reduced response times. Emergency repair response times were less than a day in fiscal year 2024, a 10 percent improvement over the previous period, the report noted.

When tenants don’t have sufficient heat, they sometimes turn to space heaters and other appliances to stay warm, a practice that can be expensive and create fire safety hazards. The disastrous Twin Parks fire of 2022 that killed 17 was caused by a faulty space heater and accelerated by other code violations at the building, like non-functioning fire doors.

Sierra Kelly, a 17-year-old student who lives with her family in Crown Heights, said she sometimes uses a space heater in her room to fill in for insufficient heat. She said the issue started in her building a few years ago, when a new owner came on the scene who “apparently doesn’t like putting on the heat.” 

“During the daytime, it gets really cold in my apartment, so I just put on layers, or you know, go on the couch, under some sheets,” she told a reporter earlier this winter. 

A spokesperson for HPD warned against using space heaters and encouraged tenants to call 311 anytime they are experiencing issues.

When someone files a heat and hot water complaint through 311, HPD can conduct an inspection and issue a violation. For repeat violators, the city’s heat sensor program requires landlords to install heat monitors that HPD regularly inspects.

A spokesperson for HPD said that most violations are quickly resolved after their inspectors  intervene, but a small subset of landlords repeatedly fail to meet their responsibilities. If violations go unaddressed, HPD can escalate the issue by suing the landlord or doing the repairs directly and billing the property owner as part of its emergency repairs program. 

While HPD says it uses all these available enforcement tools, the comptroller wants it to do more for some buildings.

In 180 properties—approximately 20 percent of the total buildings with chronic heat issues—HPD never took steps to escalate the violation, like suing, doing emergency repairs, or adding a heat sensor, the report said.

The same buildings and the same neighborhoods continue to bear the brunt of inconsistent heat. Bronx community districts 4, 5, and 7 had 75, 49, and 96 buildings respectively with chronic issues.

Those three community districts had 14 percent of all of the city’s housing code violations last fiscal year, City Limits reported in October. Each of those districts had at least 15 percent more heat and hot water complaints in 2023 and 2024 than they did in the five years prior.

Another hotspot—or coldspot—for heat violations is Southeast Brooklyn, which, like the Northwest Bronx, has more people living in poverty, and more people of color than the city as a whole. 

“New Yorkers and their families, especially the elderly and disabled, must not be left to fend for themselves in battling the cold. The clear racial disparity in heating complaints and violations is intolerable,” said Councilmember Chris Banks, who represents East New York, Brownsville, and stretches of Southeast Brooklyn.

Chronic violations can be frustrating for tenants to address. Sometimes they say they get the runaround from HPD, or that landlords will claim that violations are fixed when they aren’t.

Yaslenn Castro Mendez, 22, lives with her parents in East Harlem, where she too says “the heater doesn’t work.”

“Sometimes the radiator stays cold for hours,” she told City Limits. 

“We tried calling and emailing the super, but he doesn’t respond,” she added. “And when he [does], it’s always the same thing, like, ‘Oh, the thing is old,’ and ‘Oh, I’m waiting for repairs.’ And it just feels like a bunch of excuses.”

At 86 East 7th St. in the East Village, one of the building’s identified by Lander’s office, there have been 12 heat and hot water violations issued since Feb. 1, and tenants have been without gas service for heat, hot water and cooking since then, according to the comptroller’s press release. An attempt to reach the building’s management was not immediately successful Monday.

“This lack of service has included some of the coldest days of the year. Tenants have been sleeping in hats, gloves and coats to mitigate what the landlord and management have called ‘an inconvenience,’” Liz Quijada, of the 86 East 7th St. Tenant Association, said in a statement accompanying the comptroller’s report. 

Landlord groups have said that older rent stabilized buildings—more likely to have capital repair needs—often don’t generate enough revenue for landlords to finance repairs. A spokesperson for HPD added that there is no “one size fits all” solution for heat violations because buildings may be in different states of distress, ownership challenges, and maintenance.

Lander, who is running in the Democratic primary for mayor, said that a Lander mayoral administration would prioritize inspections on repeat violators, force repairs by using the city’s emergency repair programs, or, in cases where landlords are continually unresponsive, transfer buildings to non-profit ownership for repair and renovation.

But he also urged immediate action by the Adams administration, saying tenants can’t wait for a new mayor to get consistent heat.

“If landlords are unwilling to turn up the heat, HPD must turn up the pressure, take away their ownership and give it to someone who will,” said Lander.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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