NYC NOW - October 1, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Thousands of longshoremen at several U.S. ports have gone on strike after their contracts expired, demanding better wages and addressing automation concerns. Experts warn that New York City's supply chains could be strained if it continues. Meanwhile, Open House New York runs from October 18-20, opening usually private spaces to the public. Plus, NYC's heating season starts on October 1, requiring landlords to provide heat when temperatures drop. WNYC’s David Brand explains tenant rights. Finally, a New Jersey developer will be the first Black woman to lead a major affordable housing project. WNYC's Mike Hayes has that story.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, October 1st. Here's the midday news from David Furze. No work. That's what striking workers at Port Newark are saying today during their first day on the picket line. Thousands of longshoremen across the country are stopping work after their contracts expired at midnight. Their demands to port officials are centered on concerns.

concerns about automation and wages. The impacts could be felt quickly. Experts say supply chains will be strained in New York City if the strike lasts more than a few days. The United States Maritime Alliance says they've already traded counteroffers with the Longshoremen's Union. Governor Hokel says the state is working around the clock to ensure grocery stores and medical facilities have what they need. Every October, hundreds of spaces around New York City that are normally private open up to the public for one weekend. It's called Open House New York, and the lineup for this year is out today. From October 18th to the 20th, you can visit spaces like the inside of the city's largest power plant in Queens, or go onto the rooftop of the Nighthawk movie theater in Park Slope.

Many of the spaces are free, though some $6 reservations are required for some sites. They are available on a first-come, first-served basis. You can see some top picks for this year at our news website, an earlier version of this story misstated the pricing for some events. 66 degrees right now, it will be mostly cloudy today. We're expecting a high around 70 this afternoon. Tonight it stays mostly cloudy, a low of 58. This is W1YC. Stay close. There's more after the break.

Is your radiator clanging? If it's not, you may want to do something about it. It's October 1st, and that means, New York City property owners are required to heat apartments when temperatures dip below certain levels. WNYC's housing reporter David Brand joins us to explain how it works and what you can do if you don't have heat. And David, let's start with the basics. What are the rules about heating apartments? It's funny because yesterday it was gorgeous, right?

It was sunny, beautiful weather. Today it's going to be about 70. So we might not be in the heating season. mindset, but the temperatures are going to be dropping pretty soon. And starting today, running through May 31st, landlords are required to turn the heat on whenever temperatures drop below 55 degrees. And there's some specific rules around what the temperatures have to be in your apartment once it starts getting cold. Property owners must turn on the heat and keep the indoor temperatures at 68 degrees or higher between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. and at least 62 degrees at

at nighttime, so between 10 and 6. Okay, so if you're feeling like none of that is happening as it should be happening, how do you formally file a complaint about not having heat? Well, you have several options here. And the first step is just to contact your landlord, to contact the property manager and say, hey, the heat's out, it's freezing here. I don't have that many sweaters to go around. And they might say, you know, a plumber's on the way.

And that way the issue is getting resolved. before you need some outside intervention. If they're not responsive or they're just ignoring you or they're just not doing the work, you can call 3-1-1 to elevate the problem. Let the city know, create a public record that there's a problem here. You can also do that online on the New York City website, NYC.gov.

After that, the city's housing agency, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, they'll send out an inspector. it could take a day or two for them to arrive and they'll check the heat and then they'll contact the landlord if they determine the heat's out. What happens if they just keep ignoring it? What's the next step? Yeah, so there's even more options.

Tenants can create their own record of the heat outage. So tenant activists, tenant rights attorneys recommend people get a thermometer for their apartment and keep a log of how cold it is in your apartment, take photo, of that thermometer. Keep it a little notebook saying what the temperature was at certain times in violation of the heat season rules. The city's housing agency, if they determine that the landlord is not correcting the problem after they've sent inspectors out and have issued these violations, they can elevate it and bring a court case called an HP action, bring the landlord to court. Tenants can also do that, especially if they're organized with other tenants in the building,

file that HP action and use that evidence. the logs or the photos of the temperature being below that heat season rules below 68 degrees to the judge. And the judge can order the landlord to make the repairs and fix the heat. Should say none of this, though, generally results in immediate response or immediate action. It could still take some time. So, yes, be proactive. It's one thing to keep a few extra sweaters around when it's a little cool outside. but it's going to get very cold later in the season.

But are heat complaints, have they in general, have they been rising or declining in the five boroughs? Yeah, heat complaints and heat outages reported to the city's housing agency are definitely up. I was looking at the annual mayor's management report, which is kind of a scorecard of agency performance. And it tracks how many complaints the inspectors are responding to, how many violations they've issued. And so last fiscal year, there were 145,000 heat and hot water outages reported in New York City. That's an 8% increase from the previous year. And it's a 40% increase from 2020. So heat outages are definitely on the rise.

It takes inspectors about a day and a half to respond to these complaints. That's actually down from two days, even though there has been a higher volume of these complaints. and HPD issued about 9200 violations last year. And that's also a huge increase up from 6,200 the previous year. There is some good news, and that's for tenants in public housing. Heat outages have actually declined over the past two years after spiking in the 2022 heat season. NACHA is noting that their response times are down. New York City Housing Authority is getting to these heat outages and correcting them earlier on.

WNYC's David Brand And again, you probably don't need the heat today. We're going to be up around 70 degrees this afternoon. But stay warm, David. Thanks for joining us. Thanks a lot. You're on WNYC.

I'm Tiffany Hansen. Glad you're with us. A developer for New Jersey is about to become the first black woman to lead the development of a major affordable housing project in the Garden State. WNYC's Mike Hayes has more. Adina Bio came to New Jersey.

years, as a child, when her family fled war-torn Liberia in the early 1990s. 30 years later, she's breaking new ground as a real estate developer. But at the moment, Bios' vision for a new apartment building is just a bunch of pipes, beams, and a half-pored concrete slab. This is the most impatient part for me as a developer. A court is getting out of the ground. She says the five-story building in her old neighborhood on the south side of Newark will have 40 units. the entire building will be affordable housing

for low and moderate income families. By this time next year, I want families living in here on their way to school to work and beautifying this block. And right across the street, we're going to start phase two. Bio's latest project is a first in the New Jersey housing world. She's the first black woman to lead in affordable housing development. And she's making some big promises,

offering perks like free Wi-Fi. to all her tenants. We're going to have free tutoring for the kids at least two hours a day. And every kid that live in here that go to school is going to have free laptop to go to school. In part, she sees these amenities as a way to fix inequity issues that came into full view during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know what happened during the pandemic.

We saw a lot of young children not having adequate internet services to stay at home to be homeschool. And I say I want to solve those issues the next project I do. Bio has been in the real estate game since her mid-20s. She currently owns 14 properties, including four IHOP restaurants. In 2010, she helped redevelop a shuttered hospital in Irvington, New Jersey, converting it into more than 300 units of affordable housing. Like many states around the country, New Jersey is in dire need of more affordable housing. This fall, the state will require towns to build tens of thousands of low-priced units over the next decade. Earlier this year, Governor Phil Murphy emphasized the need for more housing.

Our population is growing at a rate that continues to outpace our supply of affordable housing. In fact, some estimate that our state is facing a shortage of more than 200,000 affordable housing units. In other words, we need to keep building, we need to do it equitably, and we need to do it fast. And New Jersey is looking to supercharge the process with financial incentives that developers like bio can take advantage of. She won a highly competitive low-income housing tax credit, which will translate to savings for her investors. Melanie Walter is the head of the New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency, the arm of state government responsible for awarding these credits. She says these types of programs can substantially help funders bottom line.

This is actually the most successful public-private partnership in U.S. history in terms of the amount of private investment generated using federal credits. Walter says since 1984, New Jersey has funded close to 70,000 apartments using low-income housing tax credits. Politicians all over the state have called for expanding the program. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris says it would be part of her administration's housing plan. For Adina Bio, she's already applied for a tax credit. credit award for Phase 2, another fully affordable building across the street. I am keeping my fingers crossed, talking to the universe every day, every night. When the project is complete, bio hopes it will be transformative for the community.

Not just building, building that occupy space, but really building buildings that solve generational issues, that solve problems for communities that we talk about all of the time. I'm not interested in building anything that is not impactful. Bio is hoping to start phase two in 2025. When both buildings are done, the block will have more than 100 new affordable units. Mike Hayes, WNYC News. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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