In Queens, the Astoria Houses saw the greatest number of unplanned heat or hot water outages, with 18 outages affecting over 3,000 residents. The Pomonok Houses had the greatest number of planned outages in the borough, with 36 outages affecting almost 4,200 residents.

The majority of Queens NYCHA complexes experienced outages at some point in the measured timeframe, according to data. Only a handful of sites, including the Baisley Park Houses, had functioning heat and hot water throughout that time period.

NYCHA said planned outages allow the agency to complete repairs and preventive maintenance. Tenants are informed of the upcoming outages through flier and robocalls, NYCHA said.

Nevertheless, public housing tenants and advocates say the number of outages, especially in the coldest months of the year, was unacceptable and put tenants in danger.

Cynthia Tibbs, one of the leaders of the advocacy group Occupy NYCHA, demanded more accountability from NYCHA and the agency’s federal court appointed monitor Bart Schwartz

She said her NYCHA development, the West Side Urban Renewal Brownstones in Manhattan, went without heat for portions of October through March. She said she filed repair request tickets multiple times during the winter months.

“Every time I turned around I was putting tickets in,” Tibbs told the Eagle. “It was horrendous, we lost [heat] every other week.”

She said residents of her development were greatly affected by the outages, especially senior citizens who couldn’t afford heaters.

Tibbs said she was concerned with Schwartz’ spending on consultants and third-party experts, who racked up a bill of $20 million. The federal government appointed Schwartz monitor as part of a 2018 settlement with the city to reform its municipal housing system.

She also criticized new NYCHA head Gregory Russ, who was promised an unprecedented $400,000, a higher annual salary than the president of the United States.