Cold Facts on Heating Aid
BY HUGH SON - DAILY NEWS - November 18th, 2004
Residents are getting the cold shoulder from a federal program meant to prevent heating emergencies, according to an Independent Budget Office report released last week.
The program helps homeowners and tenants who pay their heating bills directly, while most city dwellers live in apartment buildings and pay for heat through their monthly rent.
"This program is not optimally designed for the New York City situation," said Preston Niblack, deputy director of the Independent Budget Office.
The report charged that the city receives a "disproportionately small" share of federal Home Energy Assistance Program funds - which leads to cases in which tenants endure freezing conditions.
The citywide problem is worst in Brooklyn, which had more heat and hot water violations last year than all the other boroughs combined. Nearly 60% of the total 14,517 violations issued last year were in Brooklyn, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance spokesman Jack Madden replied that the program targets people who need it the most.
The state agency administers the federal program to "provide the largest benefits to those households with the lowest income and the highest energy costs," he said.
The lion's share of federal funding goes to parts of New York other than the five boroughs, according to state figures. New York City residents made up more than half of the 785,000 statewide recipients of the energy program last year, but they only received 15% of the $199 million the entire state was awarded.
Winters are harsher upstate, and homes are generally single-family and more costly to heat than apartment dwellings.
Andrew Friedman, co-director of housing advocacy group Make the Road by Walking, blamed heating emergencies in the city on the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
"When there are problems with a building, landlords can get away with tenants living in abominable conditions," Friedman said.
But Independent Budget Office deputy director Preston Niblack said that it is landlords who need assistance - and he suggested that they be given access to the federal heating funds.
"A lot of heat emergencies involve small landlords," Niblack said. "They're not rich; they're struggling to get by themselves and they have difficulties when facing extra-high heating bills."
Experts expect soaring home heating oil prices to cost homeowners hundreds of dollars more this winter. The price of heating oil rose 17.9% last month, the steepest climb since February 2003.
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