While climate change seems to be making winters shorter and warmer, humans still need shelter and heat during cold months. Winter storms have started picking up in frequency, and many New Yorkers prefer to stay warm at home rather than walking outside. But some are not so lucky, especially those who rent apartments in the city.<\/p>\n
Although required by the NYC Heat Law<\/a>, some landlords, perhaps due to limited resources or pure negligence, don\u2019t turn up the heat, leaving the tenants to face the consequences. Our studies in the past few years have shown that certain parts of the city, such as Erasmus (Brooklyn<\/a>), Bedford Park-Fordham South (the Bronx<\/a>), and Hamilton Heights (Manhattan<\/a>), are just not getting the heat they need, despite people\u2019s continuous complaints to 311. As we brace ourselves for the cold with some hot cocoa, it is time to see which neighborhoods suffer the most this winter.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a summary of our findings this year:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n If you are new to the city, you might not know what the \u201cHeat Season\u201d entails. In New York City, landlords are required to provide heat for all tenants from October 1st through May 31st. While it is indeed more than half of the year, the requirements<\/a> are pretty low:<\/p>\n Unfortunately, for many renters in the city, their landlords just don\u2019t seem to care. Some addresses have been reported hundreds of times since we entered the Heat Season, such as 2176 Tiebout Avenue and 2040 Bronxdale Avenue in the Bronx. These are repeat offenders from last year, and things don\u2019t seem to be improving at all, according to the number of 311 complaints associated with these addresses.<\/p>\n Surely, when tenants are suffering, they make dozens of complaints each day to 311. We, therefore, grouped the heat\/hot water complaints by address and created date. Complaints filed on the same day regarding the same building are considered one unique complaint. From Oct 1, 2021, the start of this Heat Season, to Jan 19, 2022, the city received 83,878 unique heat complaints, 25.6% higher<\/strong> than the total unique count of 66,784 in the same period last year.<\/p>\n To fairly rank the neighborhoods, we further normalize the data by dividing the number of heat complaints by the number of renter-occupied units in a neighborhood retrieved via the American Community Survey (people owning their home and are cold should settle that dispute with their significant other).<\/p>\n The map below illustrates how \u201ccold\u201d each NYC neighborhood is. The darker the shade, the more heat complaints per 10,000 renter-occupied units a neighborhood has seen this winter. You can click on the neighborhood to learn more.<\/p>\n\n
Heat Complaints, Broken Down by Borough<\/h2>\n
The Bronx<\/u><\/h3>\n
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Brooklyn<\/u><\/h3>\n
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Manhattan<\/u><\/h3>\n
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Queens<\/u><\/h3>\n
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Staten Island<\/u><\/h3>\n
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When Does the Heat Season Start?<\/h2>\n
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Mapping the 311 Heat Complaints by NYC Neighborhood<\/h2>\n