Saturday, January 24th, at midnight, a gas line exploded in the Boston Secor Houses, a privatized NYCHA building under notorious PACT slumlord, Wavecrest Management. This explosion follows the gas explosion at the Mitchel Houses in the South Bronx in October. After the Mitchel explosion, NYCHA applauded themselves for avoiding a “major disaster.” Now that someone has died, more than a dozen are injured, and hundreds of families are displaced, can they say the same thing?
This is a devastating and deadly indictment of what privatization means for NYCHA residents.
What do residents have to say?
The morning of the explosion we went out to talk to residents at Boston Secor Houses. People reported smelling gas for weeks and weeks before the explosion. One resident told us that people have been reporting a gas smell every single day on the Citizen app, as well as reporting it to management to no avail.
Around midnight, one woman called the fire department to report a gas smell in her apartment. They came over, and instead of running any tests, they turned off the gas in her unit and called it a night. Mere minutes later, residents from the development heard a boom and screams for help. Fire engulfed the top floors of the 17-story building. Everyone had to flee into the single-digit frigid temperatures, leaving behind their medicine and warmer clothes while trying to make it out alive.
Residents were shell-shocked and exhausted with many of them having not slept since being evacuated. Most spent the day in the cafeteria of a middle school around the corner, awaiting any information about how and why this was allowed to happen. Many felt they were being lied to. Painfully confusing speculations about the death count circulated in the shelter.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Deputy Mayor of Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg came to Boston Secor in the morning with nothing but empty platitudes. Bozorg reminded residents to “practice fire saftey,” an astounding and disrespectful comment from someone who is personally responsible for NYCHA’s decay.
Why is this happening?
NYCHA privatization isn’t making buildings safer. One resident said, “I don’t know who to blame, NYCHA or Wavecrest, because really, it’s both of them.” This explosion is the result of decades of NYCHA neglect. Boston Secor Houses went private through PACT in September of 2024, and since then, Wavecrest has been cutting corners with the development rehab work they agreed to. They were given $420 million to “modernize” this development and two others. What good is that money if residents are still at risk of deadly fires, and still being ignored?
We’ve seen NYCHA’s playbook when disaster strikes: they hold a press conference, they say they’ll investigate the cause, and then no meaningful change is implemented. Wavecrest has yet to respond. One resident angrily put it, “They’re hiding in their offices somewhere, getting their story straight.” Whether it’s NYCHA or another private management company, residents are at risk of injury, sickness, and even death.
If you live in Boston Secor or if you’re horrified about this tragedy, hit us up and join us. We’ll be meeting residents to make sure we get the story straight. It’s time NYCHA and Wavecrest pay for their crimes.
Dare to Struggle 