The Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing development built and maintained by the New York City Housing Authority , stand in in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, April 26, 2018 in New York City. The Biden administration is helping public housing residents pay for cooling.Ann Chanecka realized why the public housing apartment was so warm as soon as she entered the unit in Tucson, Arizona — the air conditioner was turned off.
The Biden administration took a significant step toward protecting the nation’s 1.6 million public housing residents from heat by agreeing tofor those who ask. Forecasters say this summer could be the hottest on record. The new decision could help hundreds of thousands of residents. Roughly 80 percent of public-housing units have air conditioning.
Public-housing advocate Daniel Carpenter-Gold welcomed HUD’s action but said the department “must do more to meet the universal need for cooling.”petitioned HUD in October 2022 “This is an optional program,” Carpenter-Gold said. Its effectiveness “depends on how many public housing authorities take it up.”