Opinion: NYC Needs Tenants’ Right to Cooling Bill to Address Extreme Heat

“Though in New York there’s a requirement for landlords to provide heating from October to May, there’s no parallel provision for cooling in the summer.”

After three months of choking heat, the minute the city starts to cool off, heat is the last thing we want to think about. We forget about the days our kids couldn’t play outside because it was too hot or the nights we couldn’t sleep because of the suffocating heat. We forget about the dreaded walk to the subway and standing on the platform with beads of sweat percolating down our body.

But chances are, next summer will be even hotter and headlines once again will tell us that we’ve shattered the previous heat record. The relief of cool air in the summer saves lives, which is why we have to make sure New York City residents have equitable access to cooling through the Tenants’ Right to Cooling bill. 

In New York City alone, 350 people die from extreme heat each summer. Not only are Black New Yorkers twice as likely to die as compared to white New Yorkers, but people aged 65+ are also several times more likely to die from heat-stress than the general population. 

Extreme heat exacerbates preexisting inequalities in healthcare, housing, and occupational safety, disproportionately affecting low-income communities and communities of color who face higher rates of energy insecurity and are more likely to work in heat exposed sectors.  

But every heat stress death or heat-exacerbated death is preventable. In a world of increasing temperatures due to the burning of fossil fuels, most heat-related deaths in New York City are due to the lack of access of air conditioning: 58 percent the people who died as a result of extreme heat didn’t have air conditioning in their homes, and the other 42 percent either didn’t have working air conditioning or didn’t have it on—often as a result of steep energy bills.

As cited by Councilmember Lincoln Restler, “When you look at lower-income communities, particularly lower-income Black communities, a quarter of households lack air conditioning. That’s why disproportionately, the people who die of heat-related illnesses are low-income African Americans.”  

Landlords have a legal obligation to maintain their rental units in a habitable condition. Though in New York there’s a requirement for landlords to provide heating from October to May, there’s no parallel provision for cooling in the summer. Establishing a maximum indoor temperature would expand upon preexisting heating standards by adding comparable cooling standards, reflecting our changing climate.   

The Tenants’ Right to Cooling bill would make a significant difference for city residents by mandating that tenant-occupied dwellings be provided with cooled and dehumidified air from June 15 to September 15 to maintain a maximum indoor temperature of 78 degrees. Introduced by Councilmember Restler, the bill would also ensure that landlords are responsible for the installation and maintenance of these cooling devices, issuing fines for non-compliance. 

The bill builds on the city’s landmark 2023 PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done which detailed that the city’s response to rising temperatures must include the implementation of a maximum indoor temperatures for tenants. As the mayor’s plan notes, other jurisdictions including Dallas, TX, and Montgomery County, MD, have already adopted maximum indoor air temperature regulations.

Ensuring access to cooling at home is crucial for building healthier communities and protecting our most vulnerable neighbors, as it can be a matter of life or death. This is not about comfort, it’s about survival amidst a changing climate and continuously rising temperatures. We must pass and enforce a Tenant’s Right to Cooling if we want to ensure a safer future for New Yorkers and usher in a new era of climate protections. 

Isabel Friedman is an advocacy associate for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Caleb Smith is the resiliency coordinator at WE ACT for Environmental Justice.