Bronx Tenants Struggle With No Heat, Cold Water, Mice and More

Water dripping from cracked ceilings and mice squeaking under wooden floorboards. That’s what Daly Perez lives with in his apartment on Bailey Avenue in the Northwest Bronx. A couple of months ago, the kitchen ceiling collapsed because of a water leak that left things soaked, damaged, and dirty. He doesn’t have hot water sometimes, and in the winter windows freeze shut. “I’m annoyed by it, having to worry about your things being soaked sucks. Not to mention having to replace a TV because of it,” Perez said. 

Many people live in what they consider substandard housing in the Bronx, and there doesn’t seem to be a quick fix. City Limits reported that housing violations jumped 24% in 2024 from 2023 with more than 895 housing violations cited by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). 

Ninety-year-old Monseratte Mercado  often struggles to stay warm.  “It’s too cold sometimes. Some days they don’t turn on the heater. And the ceilings have cracks all over them, some are from leaks. And there’s mice and roaches all over.” Her apartment building at 2072 Creston Avenue has 67 open housing code violations, and 15 of them are the most serious C-class violations, according to HPD. 

A couple of months ago, the landlord did send an exterminator and they put  seals over holes in the walls and floors to prevent the mice, But the mice returned just as the roaches did after the apartment was fumigated.  

Other buildings have similar problems.

Jose Diaz isn’t looking forward to the winter. His Burnside Avenue apartment often goes without heat and hot water. “In the winter, it’s especially bad. No reason the heat shouldn’t be on some days in the winter. And since I live on the 10th floor, it’s even worse.The trash all over the floors of the hallways is pretty bad too. I don’t understand it.” 

Bronx tenants share more than a borough. In building after building we found similar complaints and others about safety. Lewis Bonilla points to the broken front gate in his building on Father Zeiser Place. “For me, I don’t mind, but for some others it probably is a little uneasy for them when people are just standing in between the front gate and the hallway and you don’t even know if they live here.”

With Zohran Mamdani beginning as Mayor on January 1, many Bronx tenants hope things may change.