A bill debated in the City Council Tuesday would create a “cooling season” from June to September, during which building owners must ensure temperatures in their rental apartments don’t exceed a set maximum—a response to increasingly hot summers fueled by climate change.
“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.”
“While it becomes more dangerous to live outside without reprieve from the heat, the city has doubled down on penalizing the homeless instead of focusing on housing initiatives.”
“It has been 10 years since my release, and the memory of extreme heat without air conditioning haunts me, especially as the planet continues to warm each year. One of my greatest concerns now is for those still imprisoned.”
“How do we keep people safe from extreme heat in an age of ever-increasing temperatures? One solution may be right in front of us: we need to plant more trees in the most heat-vulnerable areas and take better care of the ones we’ve got.”
The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)’s cooling assistance benefit has helped tens of thousands of low-income New Yorkers beat the heat. But experts and advocates say it could do more, criticizing its limited reach—funding has run out by mid- to late-July the last two summers—and failure to grant complementary utility bill assistance.
“The warranty of habitability is implied in all New York residential leases, which means that all landlords—including NYCHA—are responsible for making sure apartments are livable and safe, and prolonged gas, heat, and electricity outages run counter to that duty.”
Community-based organizations are primed and ready to help New Yorkers deal with extreme weather events but say they need more robust communication, engagement, and financial resources from the city. “This is about long-term cultivation of capacity at the street level,” said Rebecca Bratspies, director of CUNY Law’s Center for Urban Environmental Reform. “And we need it because we’re going to be facing this over and over again.”
As wind and solar renewable projects across the state hit hurdles, environmental advocates say investing in an underground network of heat pumps is the Big Apple’s best bet at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
“After Hurricane Sandy, my school closed for a week, while whole school student bodies had to be relocated across the city. More recently, my school’s basement and entire first floor flooded the week before school started due to heavy rains.”
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