TAKING ACTION: Morrisania families left in the cold as HUD shutdown delays heat and hot water repairs
Neighbors living inside a Union Avenue apartment building have been boiling water and using space heaters to stay warm.
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Some residents living in Morrisania say they’ve been without heat and hot water for at least a week.
"Everything is cold, everything,” said resident Rosa De Los Santos.
Neighbors living inside a Union Avenue apartment building have been boiling water and using space heaters to stay warm.
"It's hard to see other people also suffering like I am,” cried De Los Santos.
De Los Santos is hurting, but she's also worried about her elderly neighbors, like 86-year-old Geraldina Logra, who described the past week as an unbearable situation.
News 12 called the property management company and HUD’s New York office. We didn’t get an answer, but left messages.
"The federal government's spending authority expired 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025,” an outgoing voice message greeting says. “Therefore, most HUD programs have been temporarily interrupted and most employees have been told they cannot work."
The message says it all; the government shutdown could be delaying the repairs tenants here desperately need.
News 12 ran into the building's super, who said it was private property and to film outside - even though our crew told him they were invited inside.
He said someone was working on the problem, but did not give a time frame for when that would happen.
Moments later, an NYC HPD office showed up and issued the building a citation for no heat after our story aired.
In the past week, at least four 311 complaints were filed at the building for no heat and hot water.
Neighbors are getting even more worried with the temperatures expected to drop into the 30s Monday night.
"I'm gonna have to go to a shelter somewhere where it's warm because I can't stay here, freezing,” said De Los Santos. “It's dangerous."
