Inwood Residents Win Temporary Battle To Regain Heat, Hot Water
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Tenants in one Inwood apartment building enjoyed heat and hot water Tuesday night after two months of intermittent utilities, but they were leery of management taking them away. NY1's Natasha Ghoneim filed the following report. In the last week, it was so cold inside an apartment inside 184 Nagle Avenue in Inwood, Manhattan, that a tenant said his thermometer dropped to 37 degrees.
A few floors up, tenant Jesus Macaay said the lack of heat combined with a window that has been broken for a year made it impossible for him and his pregnant wife to sleep in their bedroom.
"This is unacceptable, because look how we're living," said Macaay. "We have to sleep with our clothes on, when you want to relax and come home and be warm."
Residents at 184 Nagle Avenue near Dyckman Street told NY1 Tuesday that they spent the last 10 days without heat and hot water, and in November they went three weeks without those basic necessities.
"The apartment inside is like 30 degrees. I have to turn on the stove all the time. It's hell, it's hell," said tenant Roque Godoy.
A spokesman for the landlord, Perseus Management, disputes tenants' accounts and said Tuesday that a boiler that needed to be replaced was malfunctioning only intermittently.
The company posted signs throughout the building asking for tenants patience as the boiler is installed. The undated letter says it will take two weeks to replace the boiler, but tenants said the notices have been posted for several months.
"They are liars. They don't do anything," said tenant Lillian Evora.
Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez said for the last two years tenants living in buildings run by Perseus Management in Upper Manhattan have been contending with multiple violations. He said the company's ultimate goal is to push tenants out, renovate the apartments and charge market rates.
"The corporation that is running this building has a history of not providing service to the community. That's why we've contacted the Perseus Company and let them know we support the tenants 100 percent," said Rodriguez.
Although the heat hissed from the radiator and hot water flowed from the tap late Tuesday, tenants were still leery. They told NY1 that in the past two months, the heat returned only long enough for a city inspectors' visits.
A Perseus Management spokesman told NY1 Tuesday that there will be a new boiler within three weeks, but admitted there could continue to be problems with service in the interim.
Rodriguez said he will be working with the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to resolve the issue at 184 Nagle Avenue about alleged violations at several Perseus buildings in this community.