Astoria Houses (Photo: Queens Post)
Oct. 14, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
Queens Council Member Costa Constantinides is calling on NYCHA to immediately restore cooking gas at an Astoria public housing complex where 48 households are currently without it.
Constantinides said that the affected tenants at 1-04 Astoria Blvd. – a building inside the Astoria Houses NYCHA development – have been without cooking gas since Sept. 23 and have been unable to prepare hot meals.
“Now, in the throes of a global pandemic, when more people are working from home and forced to cook meal after meal for their families, they are left without their stoves,” Constantinides said in a statement on Tuesday. “This is shameful.”
Constantinides said that he has been told that it could take another 78 days for the cooking gas to be restored, calling the situation “downright unacceptable.”
“In the meantime, NYCHA must do everything in its power to deliver hot plates, food, and other resources to these impacted residents.”
Queens Council Member Costa Constantinides (NYC Council)
NYCHA confirmed that 48 apartments in the building have been without cooking gas since Sept. 23 after a serious gas leak forced the agency to shut down the building’s main gas valve.
Cooking gas services have been interrupted although heat and hot water services remain working, the agency said. NYCHA said that it has provided hot plates to all residents without service during the gas outage.
The agency did not provide a timeline as to when service will return but said it is working to accelerate the process.
“The gas service restoration process involves multiple partners and steps and we are currently working with an outside vendor to expedite this process,” a NYCHA spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are regularly providing residents with updates on the progress made towards service restoration.”
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