NYCHA sits on funds for repair

Catharine Dominicci has lived in an apartment at the Ft. Independence Houses her entire life. The 21-year-old said she and her family have never roasted their own turkey for Thanksgiving.

“We can’t have family get-togethers because the stove doesn’t work. We have to constantly ask them to fix it, and they don’t fix it,” she said of NYCHA.

Ms. Domincci’s situation is common at the 344-unit Ft. Independence Houses, located at 3340 Bailey Ave., where many residents have complained of broken stoves for years. 

When Councilman Fernando Cabrera announced $411,000 in capital funding for a new stove and refrigerator in every apartment during a Mother’s Day event last year, the news thrilled a crowd of seniors at the houses’ community center.

Fast forward about 11 months, and elation has turned to anger as NYCHA has sat on the funding for the stoves and fridges — as well as a separate $300,000 allocation for improvements to the Ft. Independence Houses’ playground.

“Tenants are really upset because when Councilman Cabrera came in and he offered to help us out and it didn’t happen when he said it was going to happen, a lot of these residents thought, ‘It was for political gain and he lied to me,’” said Barbara Luray, the vice president of the Ft. Independence Tenants’ Association. “He never lied. He did exactly as he was supposed to do.”

She said most units’ stoves are decades old and estimated that FDNY personnel have deemed about 25 stoves unsafe over the past four years after residents called to complain about the smell of carbon monoxide or other problems. The FDNY did not immediately answer an inquiry seeking confirmation.

NYCHA’s press office said in an e-mail that it is working with Mr. Cabrera “to expedite the funds through our internal budget process.” The housing authority did not answer questions asking when work will begin or why there has been a delay.

To Mr. Cabrera’s Chief of Staff Greg Faulkner, the reason is  “incompetence or indifference or both.” He explained that NYCHA initially said it would take a few months to deliver the stoves and refrigerators, but that the authority eventually stopped communicating with the councilman’s office.

“They don’t have anything to do other than place an order,” he said in a phone interview. “We have to press them every single day, and we don’t get movement.”

He added that NYCHA at one point said the Ft. Independence Houses have problems not only with stoves, but also with the buildings’ gas lines. The councilman offered to pay for that, but the proposal did not gain traction. 

Mr. Faulkner and Ms. Luray both said that at a tenants’ association meeting about two months ago, a NYCHA employee claimed that Mr. Cabrera had never allocated the funds. The housing authority did not answer an e-mail asking for comment on the matter.

 “To me, this was an easy one for them to take care of and it just shows that you don’t care,” Mr. Faulkner said of NYCHA. “You have no concern for these folks you are supposed to be responsible for.”

Regarding the playground on the premises of the Ft. Independence Houses, Ms. Luray said improvements are needed so elderly residents do not have to cross the busy street to reach the nearby Bailey Playground.

“I want them to do something with it before it gets to be to the point where you don’t want to touch it at all,” Ms. Luray said of the playground, which she described as frequently dirty and unusable. “It’s a shame because it’s a beautiful development. We love it here.”

Both she and Mr. Faulkner predicted that media attention will compel NYCHA to work on the capital projects. Last week, Mr. Cabrera visited the Ft. Independence Houses with a television crew from News12 to complain of the delay to implementing his capital projects.

For now, residents like Ms. Dominicci and Patty Herzog are left to improvise their meals.

“You can smell it, that gas is overwhelming,” Ms. Herzog, 57, said of her stove. “Sometimes it clicks. Sometimes it doesn’t go on; sometimes it does.”

“My son is buying me a new stove because of all the trouble I’m having,” she added.