Warming up in winter at the risk of your life in the Bronx, New York
Audio 02:30
A child and his mother pay their respects to the victims of the apartment fire in the Bronx, on January 14, 2022, in New York.
(Illustrative Image) Getty Images - Spencer Platt
By: Loubna Anaki Follow
3 mins
In the United States, three weeks after the fire which claimed the lives of 17 people including 8 children in New York, associations are putting pressure on the authorities.
Many social housing units are deprived of heating, which pushes the inhabitants to resort to sometimes dangerous means when the temperatures are freezing.
Report from the Bronx, the poorest neighborhood in New York City.
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In front of the building, photos, candles and stuffed animals were placed in memory of the 17 victims of the fire of January 9, 2022. “
It is very difficult,
regrets this woman present at the scene of the tragedy to collect herself.
I am very sad for these people, the children.
“
I knew several people
, testifies another.
My son's friend is dead.
It still hurts, especially for children.
»
For the inhabitants of the district, the drama is all the more traumatic as it is due to a faulty auxiliary heating.
Here, many of them warm themselves in this way in winter because the central heating does not work in their buildings.
Legally, in New York, owners are obliged to ensure a minimum indoor temperature of 16°C.
A rule that many social housing do not respect.
Queenie McFarland has lived in this retirement building for six years.
In his living room, it is as cold as outside with a temperature of -10°C.
“
If you put your hand along this door, you feel the cold air coming in
,” she observes.
She spends her day in her room where an auxiliary heater runs day and night.
“
I eat and sleep in my room, because it's too cold here.
I sometimes feel bad for my birds.
Queenie says she is aware of the danger posed by her makeshift installation.
“
I move the heating away from the curtains so they don't catch fire, because one night I felt they were getting very hot.
It's terrifying !
»
Queenie McFarland is not alone. Some of his neighbors leave their ovens on to warm up despite the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Others move in with relatives each winter. Despite complaints from tenant associations, dozens of buildings managed by NYCHA, the New York social housing office, are without heating.
For Kevin McKenzie and Ruby Rosario, managers of a retirement center in the Bronx, the situation is scandalous.
Themselves face similar problems.
“
If there had been heating,
” explains Ruby, “
they wouldn't have had to plug in extra heaters.
These are vulnerable families who do not have a lot of means.
They need help!
"
Everyone has the right to feel safe,
" continues Kevin.
Nobody wants to think that he might die today.
»
In New York, nearly 400,000 people live in public housing.
Impossible to know the exact number of those who are currently deprived of heating and who have to manage not to be cold.
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