Amalgamated residents frustrated over indefinite cooking gas shut-off
Many residents at the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative have been unable to cook in their own homes for over a month.
On Dec. 13, printed notices throughout the building alerted residents Con Edison would shut off the cooking gas to 55 units due to multiple leaks in the gas piping equipment found in the basement of the building.
“Please be advised that the cooking gas service in building 6 was shut off indefinitely this afternoon by Con Edison,” read the notice by the property manager, Charles Zsebedics.
Nine months prior, on March 13, 2024, several units in building 7 received the same notice of an indefinite cooking gas shut-off that has yet to be resolved. A spokesperson for ConEd cited the same reason for both.
“It is now up to the building owner/property manager/landlord — the responsible party — to hire a plumber to make the necessary repairs and go through the process for getting cooking gas turned back on,” a spokesperson from ConEd told the Press in a written statement.
On July 1, 2024, the New York State Homes and Community Renewal Department raised carrying charges for Amalgamated residents by 45.22%. The monthly maintenance fee paid by co-op residents increased charges to roughly $327.27 per room per month. Residents were dismayed after spending months trying to argue the price hike.
Debra Gardner, another resident of building 6, said she’s lived in the housing co-op for 35 years and she’s reaching her breaking point.
She said that the increase over the summer is pricing her out of the complex which is marketed as an “affordable housing” option on the Amalgamated website.
Amalgamated housing is a limited equity housing cooperative where residents buy in and own a share in the stock of the co-op and pay a monthly carrying charge fee instead of a traditional monthly rent. Despite this, with the increase in the carrying charge, Gardner said she feels like she’s making rent payments.
“I can barely pay my rent. . . I’m living off of social security and my pension,” Gardner said.
She said the letter sent out to building residents was “disrespectful” due to the tone in which it addressed how the lack of cooking gas would affect tenants.
“For those who rarely cook at home, the lack of gas service is unlikely to have a seriously detrimental effect on their quality of life. Similarly for families who tend to rely on their range cooktop, microwave, pressure cooker, and air fryer . . . a lack of gas service is probably not an insurmountable problem,” as written by co-op management in the Dec. 13 notice.
Across the street, select units in building 7 at 80 Van Cortlandt Park South, have been without cooking gas for 10 months.
Building 7 resident, Daniel Mani has found the greatest inconvenience to be the lack of laundry in the building.
Although the lack of cooking gas only affects specific units, including Mani’s, the entire building is without laundry access and they are told to visit neighboring buildings for laundry use but Mani said he doesn’t have key access to other buildings and must contact security to get in, another inconvenience.
Barbara Hernandez and her daughter Kayla Figueroa have been without cooking gas for nearly a month now with frustration only mounting.
“This is very inconvenient. . . I’m wasting money buying stuff to be able to cook,” Hernandez said.
While she said management gave her a counter cooktop, it didn’t work which left her still in need of cooking appliances. She has now purchased a slow cooker, a rice cooker, an electric skillet as well as a countertop burner to feed herself and three other adults living in her home.
Hernandez has lived in the building for 28 years, but she’s never experienced anything like this before and it has led to her family eating out more often than she would like.
In addition, Hernandez said several of the other residents in her building are older adding to the older status of the building, she’s nervous about a fire occurring.
“It also affects our laundry room because now we can’t use the dryers,” Figueroa said.
The mother-daughter pair said they bought a laundry cart as well to carry the household’s laundry to neighboring Amalgamated building, Tower 1, where they were told to do laundry in the meantime.
Hernandez shared she fears that cooking gas won’t come back for over a year but if the problem persists, she may need to consider moving out.
Building 6 resident, Mark Cutolo said the lack of cooking gas was the “icing on the cake” for his reason to leave Amalgamated Houses.
Cutolo said with the monthly increase, he is now paying more for fewer services.
“We are supposed to be middle-class housing, but the prices are stretching the limit of what middle-class housing should cost,” he said.
Cutolo shared he was considering moving out of Amalgamated Housing after the carrying charge was raised, but the new lack of cooking gas cemented his decision to move out which he expects to do this spring.
“It’s just really another sign of how our co-op is unfortunately deteriorating at this time,” Cutolo said.
The board and management are currently looking to place new $6000 Channing Street Copper Company battery-operated induction stoves in the affected units. Management stands to receive a 30% rebate on the cost per stove, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz secured $10 million for the housing corporation last June.
Yaker added the property manager, Charles Zsebedics hopes to use a portion of those funds for the new stoves. However, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, which is responsible for disbursing the funds, asserts the money can only be used for projects that improve or build upon the property.
“My concern is that this happens as quickly as possible because it’s a hardship. . . and it usually takes a considerable amount of time before people get their gas back,” Dinowitz told The Press.
