NBC New York’s Checkey Beckford reports.
It's needed for people who live in NYCHA housing to cook their meals, but residents in a Harlem building said the housing authority cut off their gas suddenly without warning — and it may not be back until late summer, or even later.
For residents of the Grant Houses on West 125th Street, hot plates will have to replace their stoves for the foreseeable future, after they were initially notified they wouldn’t be getting their gas back for at least seven months.
A notice was posted in the building and quickly shared online, as residents were left fuming. It said that the gas would not be restored until July 31.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Cristina Gonzalez tweeted a picture of the notice her sister, a resident in the building, sent her Thursday morning. She said that it came after the gas already went out.
"The gas went out two days ago, they didn’t put anything up, they didn’t slide anything under people’s doors warning them that this would be the case," Gonzalez said.
Just hours after the initial notice was posted, a new one went up to replace it. That one states that work will be completed and gas served restored "TBD." That only further annoyed residents.
"They're going to walk that back, they're gonna (say) 'Oh there's a date there? Oh no, we can't promise that, especially now that there's reporters paying attention to that,'" Gonzalez said.
Further inspection of the new NYCHA notice lists the day the service interruption began as Jan 9th — but residents said the signs were only put up on Thursday, 10 days later.
"I was going crazy, that’s not fair to any of us here.," one resident said.
NYCHA cited safety for the shut off, saying in a statement, "This outage was caused by a major leak on an underground gas main to this building. We are currently working with the service provider and an outside vendor to determine the timeline for restoration."
The housing authority apologized for the inconvenience and offered hot plates to the residents.
But Gonzalez said it isn't even the first time the gas has been shut off for months.
"The last time was a year and a half ago, and it was shut down for eight months. Eight months!" she said. "Eight months with one hot plate. My sister has a husband and a child."
The new note states that a lobby meeting will be held on Jan. 25th to update residents on the timeline, but those who live in the building told NBC New York they're not holding their breath for that to happen.
