By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — East Harlem’s Lamont Pearson knows what it's like to be without heat.
When his building's boiler malfunctioned for three weeks during a cold snap this fall, Lamont, 47, said he had to bundle up with three blankets each night and often turned on his stove to stay warm.
"It was bad," Pearson said. "I don’t want anybody to go through that."
But according to city statistics, many do. And this year its worse than ever, with calls to 311 complaining of no heat up nearly 9 percent, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The city help line received about 22,000 calls citing no heat or no hot water from July 2009 through June 2010, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio revealed Wednesday. A total of 114,004 complaints were filed citywide.
Upper Manhattan's Community Board 12 logged the most complaints, with 5,365 calls. Lower Manhattan's Community Board 1 and Midtown's Board 5 registered the fewest, with 129 and 440 over the 12-month-stretch. Harlem's Boards 9 and 10 also ranked high on the list.
Because community boards have different numbers of residents and residents can make multiple complaints, the numbers should only be taken as a general guide, Department of Housing Preservation and Development spokesman Eric Bederman said.
So far this year, 69,791 heat-related 311 complaints have been registered since Oct. 1, Bederman said. He blamed the spike on colder weather this year versus last.
And while boiler malfunctions may be partially to blame, de Blasio charged that many residents are being kept in the cold by greedy landlords hoping to save money by not paying for hot water or heat.
"It becomes literally a matter of a business model where they decide it’s easier and cheaper not to provide heat and hot water and then just pay a minimal fine," he said.
De Blasio is now pushing the City Council to pass a "H.E.A.T Act" that would increase fines for repeat violators. The bill has the support of 15 council members, de Blasio’s office said.
State Sen. Liz Krueger is also working on state legislation intended to stop landlords from negotiating down fines when they get to courts.
She said she hoped the legislation will help to "radically reduce" the number of heat-related 311 complaints next winter.
