Residents in the 181 Gordon St. building at Stapleton Houses have been without cooking gas for 8 months, with no sign of when the gas will be restored. Stapleton Houses, Dec. 6, 2021. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)jan somma-hammel
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Shortly after having no cooking gas for nearly a year, some Stapleton Houses residents are once again having to make do without some basic utilities.
“It’s one thing behind another. Last week we didn’t have any lights, then it was the elevators, now it’s the hot water. And they still haven’t restored the hot water,” Dorris Harrell, a resident of 181 Gordon St. told the Advance/SILive.com on Thursday.
Harrell reported the hot water outage last week, which she said has been out since May 30. The management office of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) property told her servicemen were attending to the issue and they anticipated the hot water being back on by Friday, June 3, Harrell said. However, the weekend came, followed by most of this week and still there’s no hot water.
Jake, another resident of 181 Gordon St., who preferred to only be referred to by his first name, described how he has been improvising to continue daily activities.
“I’ve been boiling water to take showers, even boiling water to wash dishes,” he said.
WHEN WILL HOT WATER BE RESTORED?
Although many residents still say they don’t have hot water, NYCHA said the source of the problem has been fixed.
“At this time, there is not an active hot water outage at Stapleton Houses. There was a hot water outage on June 1 due to a severe leak affecting the bottom of the hot water tank, and staff replaced a heat exchanger and service was restored. Staff are working today to install a second heat exchanger to address any temperature fluctuations during peak demand, and work is expected to be completed this afternoon,” said a NYCHA spokesperson to the Advance/SILive.com.
However, an employee in the Stapleton Houses management office explained that a new water feeder was added to the boiler in the building last week, but the issue persisted and they realized the whole tank needed to be replaced.
She emphasized that the office and service workers have been “working diligently day and night” and the delay is because they had to wait for a new tank to be delivered and installed. The employee assured the new tank will be installed and work completed on Friday, which lines up with the latest update Harrell and other residents received estimating hot water to be restored by the weekend.
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