Williamsburg Tenants Have Been Freezing Since New Year's

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Harold Joyce cried when he looked at his 5-month-old son’s hand, which had crept out from under his blanket in the night and turned blue in their freezing cold apartment. The following night, his 3-year-old son burned his hand on a space heater.

“All of our places were like ice boxes,” said Joyce, 40, whose apartment building on South 11th Street has been without heat for the past 20 days. “We have kids — it’s literally dangerous.”

Joyce lives in one of 42 apartments that has been without heat or hot water since a gas leak forced National Grid to shut off the heat on New Years Eve. Despite repeated pleas to their landlord, more than 200 311 complaints, and a New York Post exposé, they're still waiting.

The landlord first brought in a repair crew to restore heat about one week after the apartments first went cold, said Joyce. The heat returned on Jan. 8, but only for about 12 hours.

Department of Building Inspectors arrived soon after, discovered the workers had done dangerous repairs without a permit, and shut off the gas again, Joyce said.

Residents have since filed more than 200 complaints with the Department of Housing Preservation, and waited more than a week for their landlord, Mark Berkowitz, to apply for work permits that were not submitted until Jan. 16.

Joyce begged Berkowitz to put his family in a hotel after his 5-month-old son Solomon’s hand froze and his 3-year-old son burnt his hand on a space heater in the middle of the night.

“We’re trying to run our businesses and keep everyone warm,” Joyce said. “It’s below freezing in our place, what are we supposed to do?”

Berkowitz refused and continued to stall — blaming the heatless homes on the whoever reported the unpermitted workers and begging tenants not to let DOB inspectors into the building — until the New York Post published an exposé on Wednesday, Joyce said.

The article prompted City Councilman Stephen Levin to help expedite approval for Berkowitz’ work permits and HPD officials to "shadow" the building owners, said HPD spokeswoman Juliet Pierre-Antoine.

"We're pressuring them to restore heat service," the spokeswoman said. "Our guys went out there yesterday to just look over their shoulder to make sure there is work going on."

But Berkowitz has told tenants they’ll have to wait until next Friday for the heat to come back on, said resident Rob Spectre.

“If the weatherman could deliver the 40 degrees he’s been promising, that would be great,” he said.

Spectre, a computer programmer who works at home, said he’s facing a $600 electricity bill from running space heaters and hasn’t been able to work this month.

“I’m on the phone all day with city officials and our lawyers trying to get the heat back on,” he said. “We’re just hoping that pressure gets applied and the heating gets fixed.”

Spectre also used his skills as a computer programmer to collect data on the building and its owners, whom he discovered to be the Rubin family, currently serving time in a federal prison for mortgage and Medicaid fraud.

Both Spectre and Joyce said that even though the experience has been dangerous and stressful, they have no intention on moving out of the building.

“I love my neighbors,” said Joyce. “We have a wonderful building and we care about each other.”

“I love the building, I love the neighborhood, I love my neighbors,” echoed Spectre. “It just feels like I shouldn’t have to give that up in order to be warm.”

Patch called Berkowitz for comment, but no one answered the phone and we were unable to leave a message.

Photos, courtesy of resident Brian Beck, show one of the building's doors coated in ice and Beck's pet dog. "She's been in a sweater since New Year's Eve because it's so cold in here," he said.