Trailer-sized boilers outside the Patterson Houses were meant to be a temporary fix. The city’s Housing Authority put them here until it could replace the development's aging and failing boilers. But tenants say that was at least three years ago.

"The fumes are definitely hazardous to our community," said Clarisa Alayeto, a NYCHA resident. "We have a large population of young people with asthma."

"When is it going to end? It looks like this place is a boiler city over here or something," said Wilbert Montesino, a NYCHA resident.

The same question is being asked by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Lynne Patton, the regional administrator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In an intriguing bit of bipartisanship, Diaz, who's a Democrat, joined with Patton, President Trump's point person for public housing in New York, in touring the complex. Both blamed the Housing Authority for not installing new boilers here, even though the project was funded in 2011.

"We want answers. We're not taking the same old responses any more," Patton said.

“This is not about politics. Even when NYCHA has financed boilers, people are still going without heat and that should not be the case.” 

This was Patton’s second visit to the Bronx as a HUD administrator, but worsening conditions in NYCHA buildings are a problem citywide. Mayor Bill de Blasio's administratrion says it needs $32 billion for repairs and blames Washington for cutting funds. Patton, however, said NYCHA wastes the money it has.

"We need to work together. We need to move forward," she said. "Both Democrats and Republicans defunded public housing."

Patton's visit raised eyebrows because she met with Diaz, one of the the mayor's most visible Democratic critics, and not with de Blasio, who oversees NYCHA. 

De Blasio has complained that Patton's boss, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, has never visited NYCHA, even though it’s the largest public housing system in the nation. Patton said that Carson would visit soon.

Residents say while they appreciate visits from the officials, what they really want are permanent working boilers and to have heat in the wintertime.

"This is not temporary. Since 2011," said one resident. "What do they consider temporary?"