NYC sends temporary boiler to troubled Harlem building cited in Post exclusive
Tenants at a troubled Harlem apartment building are no longer left in the cold.
After The Post shined a light on a landlord who failed for weeks to provide heat or hot water to a Seventh-Avenue building, the city Department of Housing Preservation & Development has installed a temporary boiler.
“I think it’s fair to say that all of us living in this building can breathe a sigh of relief today,” tenant Mariel Javier said Wednesday. “The last 22 days of living without these essential services have been extremely tough, especially while some of us are working from home and kids learning remotely.”
“We are extremely grateful that the City of New York and all those involved stepped in and worked around the clock to rectify these conditions as soon as possible,” he said. “Today I am proud to call myself a New Yorker.”
HPD officials confirmed the repairs in a statement.
“HPD inspectors and emergency repair contractors worked late into the night and early morning to install a new boiler,” the agency said. “The critical work of our Emergency Repair Program has never been more evident.”
“Owners will face consequences for not protecting tenants according to the law,” the statement said.
HPD did not immediately provide details on what fines or costs might be incurred by the landlord.
The six-story building at 2035 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard is one of several owned by notorious slumlord Emmanuel Ku in the Big Apple and Connecticut.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development terminated its $1-million-a-year contract with Ku in 2018 for two subsidized apartment buildings in Hartford, saying they posed “major threats to health and safety.”
Connecticut’s attorney general launched a probe of Ku in January for failing to follow through on government-funded maintenance and repairs.
In New York City, HPD has cited 10 buildings owned by Ku in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and The Bronx, slapping the landlord with 1,989 violations — 466 of which remain unfixed, according to records compiled by the tenant advocates group JustFix.NYC.
The Post report revealed that the Harlem building last had a working boiler on Oct. 27.
Tenants said Ku had been warned years ago that the boiler was in disrepair and needed to be replaced — but it never happened.
City inspectors reported that last year the boiler lacked pressure, and cited the landlord for failing to file an inspection report in 2017.
Buildings inspectors who visited the site on Nov. 10 discovered that there was no water in the boiler and that at least one pipe was badly corroded.
Ku could not be reached for comment.