Issues persist one year after partial building collapse at NYCHA's Mitchel Houses, tenants say
The building facade and gas has been fully restored, but tenants say issues remain including constant elevator outages.
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It's been one year since an explosion in the boiler room of one of the buildings at NYCHA's Mitchel Houses in Mott Haven caused part of the building to collapse, sending chimney bricks plummeting 20 stories to the ground.
“It sounded like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!” said Dutch, one of the building's tenants.
“I woke up my wife to tell her the building was coming down. I thought a car crashed,” said Carlos, another tenant.
No one was injured, but dozens of residents were displaced and without water and cooking gas for months.
“They didn’t have food for Thanksgiving. They couldn’t eat hot meals,” said Tai, a Mitchel Houses resident.
“The Thanksgiving thing wasn’t cool, but we still made it what it was as far as us being a community,” Dutch said.
NYCHA says as of March 20, all 10 buildings at the Mitchel Houses have been re-piped and gas service restored.
But residents tell News 12, other issues persist within the building complex. They say that the real issues that haven’t been fixed are inside the building.
“The elevators break every day in all of these buildings," Tai said. "Every single day.
“There’s a lot of homeless people going inside the building and they’re staying in there,” Carlos said.
Dutch says the smell inside the building reminds tenants of a similar smell before the collapse.
“Now when we get a funny smell everyone is like, is that gas, or is it going right?” he said.
In a statement sent to News 12, NYCHA wrote, "NYCHA staff monitor the janitorial conditions at Mitchel Houses on a daily basis and will respond accordingly to ensure that janitorial standards are upheld. NYCHA works with law enforcement and agency partners to prevent trespassers and deter illegal activity in these buildings. Residents should contact the NYPD and 311 if they observe any safety or trespassing concerns."
