Ritchie Torres: “I am enormously grateful to Chair Waters for her advocacy for safe, decent, and affordable housing and her support. I…”

“I am enormously grateful to Chair Waters for her advocacy for safe, decent, and affordable housing and her support. I thank the Representative from Arkansas for his kind words. The Housing Temperature Safety Act, H.R. 6528, comes more than 6 months following the tragedy of Twin Parks North West which was the scene of the deadliest fire in New York City history in more than three decades. Even though the immediate cause of the fire was a malfunctioning space heater, the deeper cause of the fire cannot be overlooked. We must ask ourselves a simple but fundamental question: What prompted tenants to use hazardous space heaters in the first place? The answer, of course, is the chronic deprivation of heat and hot water which is all too common in places like the South Bronx. Tenants freezing in their apartments are left with no choice but to resort to space heaters out of desperation for heat. A space heater is often a cry for help and a cry for heat. The catastrophic fire at Twin Parks North West was a consequence not only of a broken space heater but also of an equally broken system of housing code enforcement. The Housing Temperature Safety Act would pilot the use of heat sensors which would enable State and local housing administrators to monitor heat and hot water levels in real time in order to hold property owners accountable for providing sufficient heat and hot water.…”