More than 1,000 residents at a public housing complex in Coney Island woke up Christmas morning without heat and hot water.
Residents at the New York City Housing Authority Coney Island I Sites 4 and 5 on West 27th Street were plagued with heat and hot water outages since at least 8 a.m. Wednesday, leaving 1,005 residents with no heat during the holiday, according to the authority's service overview.
National Grid and NYCHA worked to restore the heat and hot water service by about noon, though staff was still checking temperatures in random apartments to verify, according to NYCHA spokesperson Michael Corwin. The heat outages were due to a boiler issue, according to NYCHA.
The development's residents suffered heat and hot water outages less than two weeks ago as well.
Thousands of NYCHA tenants have gone without heat and hot water at various points throughout the winter season in the aging buildings, a majority of which were built more than 50 years ago.
The authority is readying to upgrade various elevators and boilers, using some $450 million in state cash at several developments, but the development in Coney Island suffering heat outages on Christmas Day is not on the list for new boilers with this funding.
Earlier this month, the authority announced a "heat action plan" that lays out steps for how NYCHA responds to any outages. "It aims to minimize the length of an outage, increase maintenance and the repair of boilers and to provide adequate alternative heated spaces and warming centers," NYCHA's federal monitor Bart Schwartz said at the time.
NYCHA has some $32 billion in unmet capital needs, according to the cash-strapped authority's 2017 estimate. But recently, NYCHA's board approved a budget plan saying the projected costs of repairing NYCHA's housing stock could soar to $68.5 billion by 2028 under the bleakest budget scenario.
