Reporter’s Notebook
I have spent the past three months reporting on this story. I have read reports, spoken with a scientist, an economist, and spent a lot of time with NYCHA residents. I have concluded that NYCHA is not ready to combat climate change. NYCHA already struggles to get funding and to allocate its money and resources properly. When NYCHA workers make repairs, it takes more than one person to complete a job. In 2017, NYCHA paid $88 million in overtime fees. The average plumber worked 677 hours overtime, the average supervising plumber worked 800 hours over, and plumbers and supervisors earned 45 percent more per day than other helpers. Overtime pays at least time and a half. If NYCHA were to better equip one person to do all of the repairs that need to be done, they could save a significant amount of money and use it to get to the root cause of building repairs. Instead, I think that NYCHA is battling a beast of its own cause: its buildings are falling apart. I don’t think that they currently have a strategic way to tackle it.
On top of a failing infrastructure, NYCHA residents are afraid for their safety, and they have every right to be. All over the country, summers are getting hotter. Hurricanes are getting worse. Impromptu storms are causing chaos. The residents of NYCHA are some of the most vulnerable people in the City, and they know it. Senior citizens are some of the most vulnerable to extreme heat. There are 40 NYCHA developments that are exclusively for seniors. Some seniors have no air conditioning units, no regulated heat, and no constant access to elevators. On top of seniors, there are people with illnesses that will get progressively worse, like diabetes. NYCHA’s residents are not only vulnerable because they are environmental justice communities. They are also vulnerable because they have been cast aside by New York City. They are left to fend for themselves in buildings that are not safe to live in.
A failing infrastructure is an immediate cause for alarm for NYCHA. However, climate change will attack developments from all angles, not just the building’s endurance. Only time will tell what coming storms might be the final straw that breaks the back of New York’s last affordable housing.