Brownsville tenants left without hot water or gas for over a month
A notice posted in the building on July 1 that a contractor had found a leak of water into the gaslines, causing them to be further shuttered and that repairs were on the way.
For more than a month, residents of 744 Rockaway Ave. in Brownsville have been living without hot water, gas and without answers on when it will return.
Raheime Pinchback, a longtime tenant, says the outage began June 1, just as he returned home from the hospital.
With a heart condition and other health concerns, the lack of basic utilities has become more than an inconvenience it’s a threat to his well-being.
“It could send my body into shock,” Pinchback said, dipping his hand into the icy water of his shower.
Each night, he microwaves water and carries it to the bathtub just to bathe. Cooking is not easier. With the gas shut off and stoves unplugged by management months ago, Pinchback relies on a George Foreman electric grill to prepare meals, a challenge for someone who must avoid processed foods and monitor his salt intake.
“This is not how I pictured my golden years,” he said. “It’s feeling more like silver.”
A notice posted in the building on July 1 that a contractor had found a leak of water into the gaslines, causing them to be further shuttered and that repairs were on the way.
But residents say there has been no progress since.
Pinchback is now calling not only for the restoration of services, but also for compensation.
“Everybody in the building should be compensated for the month of June to July,” he said. “We suffered. [the management] can go home and take a shower, go home and cook a meal, we can’t.”
News 12 reached out to the management company and HPD on the status of those repairs and is wating for a response.
