FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 9, 2022

CONTACT: media@nycha.nyc.gov

NYCHA Completes $31.9* Million Heating Distribution and Boiler Plant Upgrades at Taft Houses and Whitman Houses

The improvements will deliver more reliable heat and hot water service for the two developments, whose heating systems have a combined age of 138 years

Before-and-after photos of the heating systems are available here

NEW YORK - Today, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced the completion of $31.9 million in large-scale heating system renovations: the $9.8 million installation of eight new steam and condensate pipes at Taft Houses in Harlem and the $22.1 million installation of four new boilers and related upgrades at Whitman Houses in Brooklyn. Collectively, the investments ensure more reliable heat and hot water service to over 6,000 residents and are consistent with the work being done through NYCHA’s Transformation Plan to improve key issues of concern outlined in the 2019 agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). The heat pipe infrastructure at Taft Houses is 60 years old and had not been replaced since the development was first built in 1962, while the central heating system for the Whitman campus is 78 years old. NYCHA has an extensive workforce and heating footprint, with 624 full-time staff responsible for providing maintenance on close to 1,400 boilers, 1,700 water heaters, and 1,800 pieces of distribution equipment. Under the City Capital Action Plan approved by the Federal Monitor in May 2021, NYCHA has utilized a range of funding sources to replace more than 300 boilers across the portfolio. An additional 600 boilers will be upgraded through the PACT program.

“Delivering reliable heat and hot water service to residents is paramount, and it demands capital investment and meaningful upgrades to our existing heating plants and distribution systems,” said NYCHA Chair & CEO Greg Russ. “As a pillar of the federal agreement, heat remains a focal point of NYCHA’s continued efforts to transform, and we are pleased that the completion of these projects will directly translate to better conditions and quality of life for residents.”

“HUD provides capital funding for repairs, and it is great to be a partner in this effort and see the completion of these heating systems,” said HUD Regional Administrator for New York and New Jersey Alicka Ampry-Samuel. “New boilers will not only provide warmth, they will also ensure a healthy and stable living environment for NYCHA families.”

“NYCHA’s Capital Projects Division has been focused on utilizing multiple funding sources to make our heating system improvements more comprehensive in scope,” said NYCHA Executive Vice President of Capital Projects Steve Lovci. "This approach allows us to make upgrades to the aging infrastructure of our buildings that optimize the impact of our investments and reduce the timeline for completion.”

“New Yorkers should have affordable housing that is livable, and making infrastructure investments like these are critical to the livelihoods of families,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “I commend NYCHA and other advocates for making this work possible and providing more comfortable, livable homes to thousands of Brooklynites.”

"I am so excited to hear that our Whitman Houses will see these vital infrastructure upgrades. Improving our building management systems to deliver heat and hot water consistently and efficiently has long been a clear need for Whitman and other NYCHA complexes in our district," said New York State Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest. “With the announcement of these new systems, funded by HUD's Energy Performance Contracting model which generates upgrades through utilizing more efficient technologies, residents will finally get the improvements they deserve."

Replacing the aging, faulty infrastructure for heat and hot water delivery is critical to improving heat service for NYCHA residents. However, outages are not always due to boiler failures; they are often due to issues with other parts of NYCHA’s aging infrastructure, such as distribution systems and heating components. An outdated piece of equipment at a particular building can compromise service for an entire campus, and the capital investments needed to maintain underground steam pipes – like the ones at Taft Houses – have oftentimes not kept up with the pace of decades of use.

The process involved with upgrading the heating infrastructure for a typical NYCHA campus involves either building or replacing underground distribution pipes and ancillary equipment replacements, as well as upgrading a building’s electrical service to support that new equipment. As an auxiliary measure, NYCHA must sometimes cast parts in-house that are no longer commonly manufactured and also relies on sourcing from specialized vendors.

The underground steam distribution improvements at Taft Houses were made possible with $9.8 million in funding allocated through NYCHA’s Annual Federal Capital Grant. Later this year, the Authority will complete a complementary $3.2 million boiler upgrade at Taft Houses, made possible through a larger $200 million investment made by the City in 2018 to replace boilers and heating systems at 20 NYCHA developments with chronic heating outages. The design phase was started by NYCHA’s Capital Projects Division in July 2019 and construction – carried out in conjunction with TR Pipe – began in January 2020. The enhancements promote the more reliable delivery of heat and hot water from the central boilers to apartment radiators.

The boilers and heating projects at Whitman Houses were primarily funded through HUD’s Energy Performance Contracting model, an innovative financing technique that uses savings from reduced energy consumption to repay the cost of infrastructure upgrades that improve energy conservation. Normally offered as a public-private collaboration between financial institutions and Energy Service Companies, the approach allows building users to achieve energy savings without up-front capital expenses. The Massachusetts-based renewable energy company Ameresco was utilized to deliver the various facets of the Whitman Houses upgrade, which included the installation of four 600-horsepower boilers, new vacuum condensate tanks at 11 buildings, and the outfitting of a Building Management System that modulates the delivery of heat from the boiler plants to apartments. Additionally, funding for instantaneous water heaters at all 15 buildings at the Whitman campus was made possible through City Capital funding.

Thirty percent of the apartments at Whitman Houses have received temperature sensors that control the building’s heating distribution through zone valves connected to the Building Management System. This feature was also made possible through Energy Performance Contract financing.

UPDATE: Press release updated on March 28^th to reflect revised analysis on the project deliverables and available funding for the heating upgrades at Whitman Houses.

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About the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the largest public housing authority in North America, was created in 1935 to provide decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. NYCHA is home to roughly 1 in 15 New Yorkers across over 177,000 apartments within 335 housing developments. NYCHA serves over 350,000 residents through the conventional public housing program (Section 9), over 20,000 residents at developments that have been converted to PACT/RAD, and over 75,000 families through federal rent subsidies (the Section 8 Leased Housing Program). In addition, NYCHA connects residents to opportunities in financial empowerment, business development, career advancement, and educational programs. With a housing stock that spans all five boroughs, NYCHA is a city a within a city. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/nycha, and for regular updates on NYCHA news and services, connect with us via www.facebook.com/NYCHA and www.twitter.com/NYCHA.