Sewage water has been flooding the bathtub of tenants on the first floor at the Bayview Houses in Canarsie.
For nearly five days, Kaitlynn Sabater hasn’t been able to shower. Every few hours, she has to scoop sewage water out of her bathtub and dump it into the toilet, to keep the tub from overflowing.
Next door, her elderly neighbor, who is blind, faced the same problem. She said she only knew the water was rising when she heard it splashing against her plastic shower chair.
“I haven’t showered since Thursday,” the neighbor said.
The two women say they began calling NYCHA about the issue Thursday. A worker stopped by Friday, according to Sabater, but told her the problem was coming from the basement and said someone else would need to come fix it. By Monday morning, the issue still hadn’t been resolved.
For Sabater, the lack of a working shower meant missing shifts at her food service job.
“I can’t go to work with an unclean body,” she said.
Video shared with News 12 shows similar flooding from 2023, when the water rose so high it spilled out into building’s lobby.
After News 12 reached out to NYCHA Monday morning, crews arrived at the building to clear the water and fix the backup in the basement. In a statement, NYCHA said it would implement a prevention plan to address issues moving forward.