The only thing boiling over at this Bed-Stuy housing project is anger.
A group of residents at the Marcy Houses went without gas for nearly three weeks, until workers from National Grid and NYCHA on Saturday reinstalled stoves and turned the gas back on in 72 of the complex’s apartments after inquiries from the Daily News.
David Ruffin, 62, credited The News with helping to get the gas back on. A diabetic, Ruffin said he relies on his oven to prepare meals he can eat. He estimated he spent about $150 extra over the past three weeks.
He said he was initially told it would take eight weeks for the gas to resume.
“We got together in the building and called management, then the borough,” he said. “We called 311, some people called OSHA. Then someone said call the Daily News and things started jumping.”
Residents at the New York City Housing Authority properties received a rude shock Aug. 5, when they learned that their gas supply had been abruptly cut off.
That morning, 72 apartments in buildings 51, 53 and 55, all along Nostrand Ave., between Flushing and Park Aves., were left without cooking gas. Representatives from National Grid discovered a leak in the basement of 51 Nostrand Ave., when building management alerted the company to residents’ complaints.
“It’s like a third-world country in here,” said James Green, 24, a resident at 53 Nostrand Ave., who just like other residents of the building said he is completely unaware of the cause of the outage, and has not been informed about the situation.
“Are they going to reimburse me for all the expense I’ve incurred eating at restaurants? No one even informed us it was going to happen, or for how long.”
National Grid said it could not restore gas until NYCHA completed repairs on the building.
NYCHA insisted it had everything under control.
But residents of the affected buildings were left out of all these conversations. On the day of the outage, staff members at Marcy hand delivered hot plates to each of the affected apartments to use until gas was restored.
Residents say it was not enough.
Helen Newtown, 80, another resident at 53 Nostrand Ave., has been living at Marcy for close to 60 years. She takes care of her two adult daughters, who are mentally disabled, and says the stoppage of gas for more than two weeks made her life impossible.
“This is too much of a stress for me,” said Newtown, who suffers from arthritis and is diabetic as well. “It takes forever to cook on a hot plate, and it’s not healthy for me to eat out all the time.”
Newtown and other residents said that despite repeated requests for information, the building management has not been able to provide concrete information on the cause of the problem or when it will be fixed.
Robert Cornegy, who is looking to take over from Al Vann as City Council member from District 36, which covers Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, expressed outrage at NYCHA’s attitude.
“This is clearly unacceptable,” he said. “These are people with low-wage incomes we are talking about here. They can’t afford to eat out every day when they are living on the bare minimum.”
