Public Housing took quite a hit from Superstorm Sandy and housing officials are already thinking about ways to improve resiliency.

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism students Jon Gerberg and Kristen Reed visited a public housing complex called Alfred E. Smith Houses on the Lower East Side to assess the damage days after the storm. Gerberg and Reed found many residents chose to stay in their apartments. The family they spoke to were collecting water to flush toilets and navigated through dark hallways with flashlights.  According to Cecil House, General Manager of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Smith Houses residents weren’t the only ones.

“In NYCHA alone we lost power, heat, hot water to 423 buildings affecting 80,000 residents across the city,” House said. As of December 21, 2012, NYCHA reported in a press release that all Sandy impacted building had been restored. However, remediation and renovation continued for months, according to House.

House stated that even as of late April, 24 of NYCHA’s developments were operating off of mobile boilers for heat and hot water.

One major lesson learned from the storm, according to House,  is the importance of evacuation of residents in flood-prone areas. When residents choose to stay in their apartments, House said that it can be “very difficult for the Housing authority and other agencies to address the need that gets built up after the storm.”

As far as preparing for the upcoming storm season, House said that emergency temporary boilers were in place at some locations.  Coordinating with community organizations would also be a key part of the New York City Housing Authority’s next storm response.

“For NYCHA ourselves, we’re primarily a landlord and we’re not in a position, given the challenges that we have with federal funding, to address and staff up to maintain, to address all of the issues that our residents might have in the light of a storm as significant as Hurricane Sandy,” House said. “[S]o partnering with others is going to be critical for us.”

Long term, NYCHA plans to upgrade facilities to make them less prone to flooding “Today, our boilers, our electrical switch gears are all in our basements—exposed,” House said. “[…]We’re working to elevate those systems.”

In this edition of MetroFocus we report from New Jersey and New York on what’s ahead for the region six months after Sandy.

NJ Today’s Lauren Wanko reports from Ortley Beach in Ocean County, NJ where business owners and residents are still struggling to repair and reopen as summer approaches.  In New York City, the focus is on public housing. We take a look back with an excerpt from a story reported by Jon Gerber and Kristen Reed last November. Two Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism students take us inside the Smith Houses on the Lower East Side when the lights were still out. Host Rafael Pi Roman follows up with an interview with New York City Housing Authority General Manager Cecil House about what’s ahead for the agency and its tenants, and lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy.

Dr. Harold Koplewicz of the Child Mind Institute talks to Pi Roman about a new project to make mental health care for children a higher priority and about how to respond to children’s questions about the Boston marathon bombings.

The New York Executive Director of the Nature Conservancy Bill Ulfelder joins Pi Roman to talk about “LEAF”, a growing program that takes urban students to the wilderness and helps them become environmental leaders.

And Pi Roman takes a trip to Manhattan’s new Museum of Mathematics to see what’s making math fun.

Watch the individual MetroFocus segments below and stay up to date on MetroFocus news from the New York region on Twitter.

Public Housing Recovering Slowly From Sandy’s Wrath

Host Rafael Pi Roman follows up with an interview with New York City Housing Authority General Manager Cecil House about what’s ahead for the agency and its tenants, as well as lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy.

National Campaign Highlights Barriers to Children's Mental Health Care

MetroFocus talks to the Child Mind Institute's Dr. Harold Koplewicz about the organization's upcoming children's mental health campaign.

Environmental Leaders of the Future

The Nature Conservancy's New York Executive Director Bill Ulfelder discusses the ways in which the Conservancy is adapting to a changing world.

A Museum All About Math

The new National Museum of Mathematics at Madison Square Park hopes to teach students, parents, and teachers about the wonders of math.

In this edition of MetroFocus, we report from New Jersey and New York on what’s ahead for the region six months after Sandy.

NJ Today’s Lauren Wanko reports from Ortley Beach in Ocean County, New Jersey where business owners and residents are still struggling to repair and reopen as summer approaches.  In New York City, the focus is on public housing. We take a look back with an excerpt from a story reported by Jon Gerber and Kristen Reed last November. Two Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism students take us inside the Smith Houses on the Lower East Side when the lights were still out. Host Rafael Pi Roman follows up with an interview with New York City Housing Authority General Manager Cecil House about what’s ahead for the agency and its tenants, and lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy.

Dr. Harold Koplewicz of the Child Mind Institute talks to Pi Roman about a new project to make mental health care for children a higher priority and about how to respond to children’s questions about the Boston marathon bombings.

The New York Executive Director of the Nature Conservancy Bill Ulfelder joins Pi Roman to talk about “LEAF”, a growing program that takes urban students to the wilderness and helps them become environmental leaders.

And Pi Roman takes a trip to Manhattan’s new Museum of Mathematics to see what’s making math fun.

Many residents of Red Hook Houses ignored evacuation orders and now say they regret it. Photo by Gianna Palmer

Like everyone living in the lowest-lying areas of New York City, the more than 6,100 residents of the Red Hook Houses — Brooklyn’s largest public housing development — were under orders from City Hall to evacuate the zone by Sunday evening.

The New York City Housing Authority gave those who lived in public housing an extra push to get out: residents received advance word from staff and then police that elevators, heat and hot water would be shut off as Hurricane Sandy approached.

Instead, the complex’s 25 buildings provided a front-row vantage point for the many residents who remained to ride out the storm’s fury.

Alfredo Crespo, a fourth-floor resident of a Red Hook Houses apartment building, described the intense flooding that filled the streets outside his windows.

“Last night, everything was full of water,” he said, pointing to the intersection of Lorraine and Henry streets, near where he sat smoking a cigarette. This spot is three blocks in from Gowanus Bay, off New York Harbor. He pointed to his waist. “Line to here.”

Crespo, 61, said that when Tropical Storm Irene hit, he’d evacuated. “But nothing happened,” he recalled. “So this year I stayed.”

Many residents said Tuesday that they’d expected Sandy wasn’t going to be nearly as severe as it had in fact turned out to be. Others said they had feared their empty apartments would be robbed if they left. No one mentioned the city’s 76 evacuation shelters.

Continue reading at The New York World…