NYC Lawmaker Proposes Mandatory Cooling Law

A New York City Council member is proposing a bill that would guarantee cooling for renters in hot summer months, arguing that a similar law guarantees heating in winter.

According to Council member Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn, “When we looked at the data of who is dying from heat-related illnesses, the single biggest risk factor was not having air conditioning in their homes.”

As Willy Blackmore explains in Word in Black, “The city’s Heat Code became law back in 1918, setting a minimum threshold of 68 degrees for all centrally heated buildings between the beginning of October and the end of May. While the minimum temperature has changed at times over more than a century, it’s a mainstay of being a renter in the city: heat and hot water are provided at the landlord’s expense, with very few exceptions.” The proposed bill would set similar requirements for cooling and include a fee of up to $1,250 per day for noncompliance.

Blackmore explains that cooling units add to landlords’ electricity costs. “Therefore, if a landlord installs a heat pump, or if they have a tenant who uses an A/C window unit, the landlord would be obliged to pay an electric bill for the heat and cooling — separate from what tenants pay for their own electricity use.”

While the majority of New York City residents (91 percent) have access to cooling, the housing units that don’t are concentrated in communities of color like Bedford-Stuyvesant, which Restler represents, and many of the city’s shelters. An average of 350 people die of heat-related causes every year in New York City, though accurate data for heat deaths is often difficult to come by.