NYC’s Riis Houses on edge after arsenic scare, week without drinkable water: ‘It’s hard’

The automated voicemail messages kept coming at Jacob Riis Houses one week after reports arrived that arsenic might be swimming in the public housing complex’s taps.

New testing showed the water was clear of arsenic, a recent voicemail promised, but the testing was incomplete — and a disease-causing bacteria, Legionella, might have surfaced in the water. Residents should not “drink or cook” with the water, the voicemail warned.

“The city Health Department is on-site at Riis Houses,” the nameless, robotic voice said, insisting that tenants’ safety was a top priority. “We’ll be there throughout the weekend to provide guidance to residents.”

The scare came to a merciful end Saturday, when city officials gave the all clear and Mayor Adams visited the complex to drink from a tap. The city said the lab that detected arsenic retracted its finding, confirming it was false and that reports of Legionella in the water were “inaccurate.”

“Nothing’s better than New York City water,” the mayor said before chugging a glass in a video tweeted by his spokesman. “We’re just here to make sure that people know: I’m drinking it. The water’s safe to drink.”

Anxious residents, though, described the week without tap water as the latest indignity to fall upon the complex of 13 decaying buildings tucked into 12 acres on the eastern edge of Manhattan’s East Village.

More than 3,900 people live at the New York City Housing Authority complex. They are not happy.

And as they scrounged up water bottles from stores — apartments have each received two cases of water daily, not enough for large families — and wondered about the safety of their shower taps, they were unsure when their water nightmare would end.

“They have not told us yet when it will be or how long it will be,” Daphne Williams, 70, president of the complex’s tenant association, said Friday. “It’s hard.”

She said the inability to cook also drove up food costs for residents, and noted some people avoided showering, too, though the city did not advise that precaution.

One of those residents, Robert Valdes, 69, has lived in Riis Houses for more than six decades. He said his building, at 1225 FDR Drive on the north side of the complex, has lacked gas for months due to a leak.

Valdes is partially disabled and had cases of water brought to his apartment by the housing authority — sometimes bottled, sometimes canned. He said his tap water was not cloudy this week, as it appeared in some units. But that did not give him the confidence to use it for cleaning.

“I have not heard anything about not showering in the water,” he acknowledged, but he added, “I take my own precautions.”

“As soon as they clear this up, then I’ll start bathing again,” Valdes said. “We’re doing the best we can. And I really don’t want to move.”

Trust in authorities across the complex evaporated. Some residents said the lack of clarity from the city was their top frustration.

Adams visited the buildings to hand out water bottles the night of Sept. 2, after being informed that initial testing showed elevated levels of arsenic in the tap water. The city first alerted tenants to the threat that night.

In a statement Saturday, Adams said, “I know the last eight days have been unbearable for the residents of Jacob Riis Houses,” adding that “the water at Riis Houses is and has been free of any discernible amount of arsenic since the initial tests were initiated in August.”

“I would not ask the residents of Riis Houses to do anything I wouldn’t do,” Adams added, noting his trip to drink the water.

But residents expressed frustration that the mayor did not attend a community meeting on the matter Friday night.

The city first alerted tenants to the threat the night of Adams’ first visit. The same night, a news outlet, The City, reported that the housing authority had found arsenic in the water two weeks earlier, a claim that city officials swiftly disputed, and that the news outlet abandoned in its coverage.

A lab result report released by the city on Friday retracted arsenic test results from Aug. 26 and Sept. 1.

Residents were left to scratch their heads at the timeline, and a rumor circulated around the complex that arsenic traces arrived as early as the winter.

“I believe they knew our water was contaminated,” Williams said. “We don’t know: Has it been a month? Six months?”

The local city councilwoman, Carlina Rivera, said that passing the blame onto a faulty lab result will not cut it for the unnerved tenants. She noted that city public housing residents “constantly deal with deteriorating conditions and escalating infrastructure crises.”

After the latest crisis, Riis Houses residents are owed answers from the city, a Council oversight hearing, compensation and increased investment, Rivera said. The damaged confidence will take time to repair.

“They certainly do not know who to trust,” Rivera said of residents. “It has become an economic burden. It certainly has created a lot of fear and confusion.”