New heating unit leaves Bed-Stuy building residents shivering

The slapdash heating system in a Secton 8 building in Bedford-Stuyvesant isn’t cutting it — nor are management’s lackluster promises of repair.

Baseboard heating came to the 32-unit 305 Decatur Street in late 2013, despite resident complaints of being without warmth for years. The building’s management company, Shinda Management Corp., then claimed to have fixed the issue — but temperatures have plunged both inside and out in recent days.

“We’re freezing,” Collette Wright, a resident of the building, told DNAinfo. “This baseboard heating is not working out.”

There are no signs that Shinda is working to repair the heat, residents told DNAinfo. The superintendent made the rounds on Thursday and taped up window cracks, but made no further mention of when or whether the heat would be addressed.

DNAinfo’s calls to Shinda’s offices were not returned.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development reportedly indicated that the heat was to be fixed back in 2008, according to a letter that discussed a loan program to aid Shinda in making a number of property repairs. Among the intended jobs, according to the letter, was the replacement of boilers at 305 Decatur Street.

The building’s owner, Kingston Heights Apartments L.P., purchased the five-story building for $8.7 million in 2007, according to city records.

So far this winter, the number of heating complaints in New York City has doubled from the previous year. [DNAinfo] — Julie Strickland