{"id":18579,"date":"2024-02-20T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/research\/?p=18579"},"modified":"2024-02-22T10:24:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T15:24:17","slug":"nyc-heat-complaints-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/research\/nyc-heat-complaints-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Renters in the Bronx Continue to Suffer this Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
While climate change has certainly made winter more bearable for many, the recent cold spell reminded us how brutal the weather in New York could be, especially for those who live in areas with poor heating. Each year, renters across the city fall victim to inadequate heat and hot water in their apartments.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the NYC Heat Law, many landlords do not comply with heating regulations, resulting in many tenants reporting their buildings to 311. Each winter, RentHop analyzes the frequency of these calls throughout buildings, neighborhoods, and boroughs, finding that certain areas receive more heat complaints than others. Areas like Fordham Heights (Bronx), Flatbush (Brooklyn), and Little Italy (Manhattan) continue to receive a high volume of heat complaints. The following describes where renters are more likely to be left out in the cold.<\/span><\/p>\n Key findings from this year’<\/span>s report include:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Landlords in New York City must provide heat for all of their tenants from October 1st through May 31st. This period is referred to as the \u201cHeat Season.\u201d <\/span>Heating requirements<\/span><\/a> include:<\/span><\/p>\n Many buildings in the city do not provide adequate heat for their residents, with some addresses receiving significant numbers of complaints throughout the Heat Season. Buildings like 31-35 Crescent Street in Queens and 2176 Tiebout Avenue in the Bronx received hundreds of complaints this year.<\/span><\/p>\n Surely, when tenants are suffering, they make dozens of complaints each day to 311. Therefore, to accurately measure the number of days a building goes without heat, RentHop 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, 2023, the start of this Heat Season, to February 16, 2024,\u00a0 the city received 120,092 unique heat complaints, 4.33% higher than the total unique count of 115,166 in the same period last year.<\/span><\/p>\n It is no surprise that when the temperature drops, renters are more likely to file a complaint, but by how much? We at RentHop visualized the correlation for you in Figure 1. As you can see,\u00a0 the recent cold waves have driven many renters in despair to call 311, with unique complaints shooting over 2,000 on January 18 and 19, when the lows in mid 20s. The volume of complaints 311 had to process soon dropped below 750 as the temperature rose above freezing. Complaints picked up between February 5 and 6 and broke 1,000 again on February 14, when the averages fell close to 32 degrees. It looks like many New Yorkers were left with only the heat of passion on Valentine\u2019s Day to keep them warm.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a> Figure 1<\/span><\/p>\n Figure 2 demonstrates the number of normalized heat complaints per borough from October 1st to mid-February of 2020 through 2024. The Bronx consistently receives the highest number of heat complaints annually, accounting for 34.15% of total city-wide complaints this season. Brooklyn outpaced Manhattan this year and became the second-coldest borough in New York. The borough received\u00a0 510.35 complaints per 10,000 renter-occupied units. Heat complaints have risen across all boroughs other than Staten Island this year.<\/span> Figure 2<\/span><\/p>\n <\/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 2021 <\/span>American Community Survey<\/span><\/a> (homeowners can control their heat and are therefore excluded from this study).<\/span><\/p>\n The map below illustrates how “cold” each NYC neighborhood is. The darker the shade, the more heat complaints per 10,000 renter-occupied units a neighborhood has seen this winter. Click on the neighborhood to learn more.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Heat Complaints by Borough<\/span><\/h2>\n
The Bronx<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Brooklyn<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Manhattan<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Queens<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Staten Island<\/span><\/h3>\n
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When Does the Heat Season Start?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Renters Suffer as Temperatures Drop Below Freezing<\/span><\/h2>\n
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The Bronx Remains NYC\u2019s Coldest Borough<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Mapping the 311 Heat Complaints by NYC Neighborhood<\/span><\/h2>\n