Heat Seek had its biggest heat season yet in 2020-2021, installing sensors in 70 apartments throughout New York City. This was possible due to our numerous partners working tirelessly on behalf of low income New Yorkers. We extend our deep thanks and gratitude to:
The Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer
Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation
Met Council on Housing
Legal Services NYC
NYC Tenant Support Unit
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB)
The New York Community Trust
Sparkjoy Foundation
COVID-19 disproportionately impacts low income communities and communities of color, meaning that our services were more critical than ever before. We worked steadfastly last winter to help tenants hold their landlord accountable and force them to provide heat as required by the law. Due to the state of emergency and related physical distancing restrictions in place, we innovated our installation process, developing a system for remote sensor installs and creating detailed instructions to support tenants in installing their own sensors, with great success.
We launched a pilot program with the City of New York to support sensor installation in two new neighborhoods — Inwood and Washington Heights, which captured a whopping 4,355 hours of violations. A single sensor in a Washington Heights apartment captured 943 hours in which the temperature was below the legal limit between February and May 2021, a period of just 3.5 months. The coldest temperature recorded by the sensor was 53 degrees, fifteen degrees colder than the minimum daytime temperature required by law. Heat Seek’s sensors helped the tenants in this building receive new radiators, new windows, and a promise of future insulation work. While the advocacy work is not over, Heat Seek looks forward to continuing to support tenants, tenant organizers, and legal advocates as they demand the essential services that landlords are required to provide.
This is just one example of Heat Seek’s impact. As we look ahead to the upcoming heat season, we’re excited to build upon what we learned in 2020, and expand the reach of our program. We’ve hit the ground running this fall - in October, we convened a group of legal services practitioners and legal advocates to discuss how Heat Seek can support the tenants they are working with. We’ll be hosting a similar forum for tenant organizers in early December. Heat Seek also has a fantastic new board of directors, which is focused on positioning the organization for growth over the next three years.
There is much work to be done in the next several months, and we look forward to diving in. Stay tuned for additional program updates - there are exciting things afoot here, and we can’t wait to share them with you!
Noelle Francois
Executive Director