Residents of a luxury Brooklyn apartment, who pay up to $5,000 a month to live there, have been forced to use borrowed hot plates to cook their meals after being left with no gas or heat for months.
The residents of Eleven33 – located at 1133 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint – have said they feel unsafe after dealing with the problem for so long – and have had to bundle up in thick blankets as temperatures drop.
Their heat and gas were turned off after a tenant reported multiple gas leaks – which occurred over the course of many years – to the National Grid in September.
Although the heat was turned back on in early December, residents say they’re now too afraid to use it. In addition, they still don’t have access to cooking gas, according to Gothamist, and are receiving catered meals through the building’s management and developer, Domain Companies.
Residents also have the ability to check out hot plates from management, but are forced to return them between meals.
‘I complained about having to give the hot plate back in between lunch and dinner,’ one resident, Allison Miller, said. ‘I’m pretty sure they can afford to buy each unit a hot plate.’
Some have even bought gas detectors and shelled out for air fryers and crockpots to cook meals for their families over fears of more leaks.
The gas has been turned off since September, after a resident made a complaint to the National Grid about carbon monoxide detectors constantly going off and that they could smell gas.
One tenant even claimed management told her to put a shower cap over her detector to make it stop going off.
The National Grid investigated and found ‘multiple leaks’ in the piping and plumbing and shut off the gas line.
And as temperatures plummet, especially over the weekend, residents remain cold, as many are too afraid to use space heaters. Those who have tried short-circuited the entire electricity in their unit.
‘I had a space heater and a humidifier in one outlet, and it blew the fuses in my apartment so the electricity went out,’ Marissa Manzanares told Gothamist.
All the issues in the eight-year-old building are supposed to be fixed ‘very soon,’ according to an email, viewed by Gothamist, that was sent last week. It informed residents that they had 15 plumbers on site and they were working on the problem.
Domain Companies said its ‘top priority’ was the ‘well-being’ of its tenants and that it had ‘communicated with them directly on a regular basis.’
However, residents are saying that’s not good enough and have sought legal counsel as many are already experiencing negative health effects they claim to are a result of the gas leaks.
‘My son’s lungs are terrible,’ Manzanares told the outlet. ‘My lungs have gotten so bad that literally two weeks before the gas got shut off I finally told my doctor, “I guess I’m ready for steroids because I can’t breathe anymore.” I’ve gone from inhalers and now I’m on steroids.’
Gas leaks can cause respiratory issues, depression, dizziness, and a decrease in quality of life if one is exposed to it.
Despite the building being in one of NYC’s ‘most exciting and rapidly developing neighborhoods’ and residents being offered ‘unparalleled amenities,’ such as skyline views, a CrossFit gym, and stainless steel appliances, according to its website, residents said they feel unsafe and have started to withhold rent.
‘I don’t know if I will ever use these units again, because I don’t feel safe,’ Manzanares, who has lived with her family in the luxury building since 2015, said.
A total of 87 residents of the 210-unit apartment building have started to withhold rent and have contacted a lawyer about the ongoing problems with the heat, gas, and hot water.
However, some of the income-based residents – who won a luxury unit through the housing lottery and only pay between $494 and $2,405 – are too afraid to join the strike, as their contract threatens to kick them out if they do.
‘I signed something when I won the housing lottery that said you can be kicked out for not paying rent,’ Miller, who lives with her son, told Gothamist. ‘I’m afraid of being homeless… I feel very, very stuck, trapped, and completely in fear.’
There are currently 105 affordable units in the building – it is unclear if any have joined the strike.
Colin Kent-Daggett, a tenant advocate with the St. Nicks Alliance, said many of the income-based residents are staying quiet due to fear. He said: ‘Landlords have a lot of power over people and make them feel really afraid and powerless to complain and stand up for their rights.
‘No one wants to go to housing court and defend themselves and take time off work to go argue with their landlord in front of a judge,’ he told Gothamist.
Domain Companies, which develops and manages the $48million property, only paid $100,000 in property taxes last year, according to public records. The luxury building – which rents apartments up to $5,000 – got a tax cut for being a part of the former state program that gives developers tax breaks in exchange for having a portion of their units go toward affordable housing.
However, the $2billion-a-year program expired in June, despite Governor Kathy Hochul’s attempt to rework it, after critics said it gave away too much to developers. It is expected to be a hot button issue in Albany come the new year.
