Mamdani prioritizes $2.5B for NYCHA EV chargers, other green upgrades while tenants homes are left crumbling and stinky

They’re not pumped.Long-suffering NYCHA residents called for the city to focus on bread-and-butter fixes for their crumbling, stinky homes — as Mayor Zohran Mamdani touted a $2.5 billion plan to provide heat pumps and other green tweaks to public housing.The eco initiative that Mamdani highlighted in a splashy Earth Day announcement Wednesday would put energy-efficient water and lighting systems in 45,000 apartments, add new heating pumps into 20,000 homes, install 10,000 induction stoves and provide 150 public electric vehicle charging stations in NYCHA parking lots.But many residents at the Woodside Houses, where Mamdani rhapsodized about protecting the planet, said they wanted the city to deal with other nagging — and gagging — issues.“I have a smell in my apartment from the trash compactor — it smells so bad, I throw up every day,” said Jennifer Lambert, 50.The NYCHA “Sustainability Agenda” released by Mamdani’s administration quietly slips in that the five-year plan is projected to cost nearly $2.5 billion, of which $1.2 billion has yet to be found.The agenda, which aims to fulfill its green goals by 2031, is a continuation of green energy policies and benchmarks set under Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, for the city’s largest landlord.Mamdani in February also promised to spend $38 million to bring heat pumps — an all-electric, efficient appliance that provides both heat and air conditioning — to the Beach 41st Street houses.The pledge followed a pilot program that brought 150 heat pumps into the Woodside Houses last year.Maria Lopez, 73, was one of the residents who received the fancy heating and cooling units — and she hasn’t looked back.“I don’t suffer like I used to, when it got so cold in my apartment that I had to have to plug in a heater and sleep next to it,” she said.

“Once they installed this unit, forget it — it was amazing to me.”But many of Lopez’s neighbors — including Lambert, the resident...