What to Know
- Ovens in the NYCHA's Marlboro Houses will be cold this Thanksgiving — and have been for weeks after residents called in a leak last month
- The agency said gas had to be shut off entirely due to big infrastructure problems, with the leak coming from the main gas line
- Many residents of the Gravesend housing complex are at their wits end with NYCHA, which has given each unit just a hotplate to cook with
As millions of Americans are in the midst of preparing all the foods they’ll need for their Thanksgiving feasts, some families in Brooklyn won’t even be able to cook a turkey in their kitchens thanks to a gas outage.
Ovens in the New York City Housing Authority’s Marlboro Houses will be cold this holiday — and have been for weeks after residents called in a leak last month.
The housing authority told NBC New York that National Grid had to shut off the entire gas line due to massive infrastructure problems, with the leak coming from the main gas line into the building.
Many residents of the Gravesend housing complex are at their wits end with the agency, which has given each unit just a hotplate to cook their food.
“What am I supposed to do? Go get a pound of Boar’s Head honey roasted turkey, a can of gravy, pour it over, put it in the microwave and say here? What thanksgiving?” said Margie Simmons, who showed NBC New York the electric fryer she will be using to fry chicken instead. Another resident said she will taking her son to a church on Thursday for their Thanksgiving meal.
NYCHA released a statement saying that “while we understand the urgency and inconvenience to residents, we can only restore gas when the root cause of the outage is fully addressed, testing is complete, safety is ensured and we have sign off by the provider.”
Local
Officials are not sure yet if there will even be gas in time for the December holidays either, as there is no estimated date when the issues can be fully fixed.
Brooklyn Councilman Mark Treyger said NYCHA hasn’t answered any of his questions regarding the gas shutoff, including if staff had flagged this concern prior to the gas leak.
“This is ridiculous. It’s shameful. NYCHA residents should not be going through this. We pay our rent just like anybody else,” said Simmons. “We should not live like this. Stop it NYCHA. Stop it. And do the right thing. Enough is enough.”
