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Left in the Cold: No-Heat Complaints

EDK is a research lab focused on understanding the physical world at planetary scale. We build systems that organize the world's physical information and make it accessible and usable. Our belief is simple: the physical world should be as searchable and understandable as the digital world.

No-heat complaints peak at 6,470 in January

A day-by-day view of heating complaints and housing conditions in low-income neighborhoods.

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30,000 rows · CC BY-SA 4.0 · also on Kaggle

Left In The ColdWaiting For The Heat

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Every record EDK holds for this dataset. Filter it, then export what you need.

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Key findings

  • January brings about 6,500 complaints, compared with just over 300 in August.
  • The typical complaint is closed in about two days.
  • The typical block group is about 99% renter-occupied.

About this dataset

Each entry is a tenant complaint about missing heat or hot water, with filing and closure dates and neighborhood housing context. Together, they show when complaints surge and where renters face them amid low incomes and high rents.

Use it for

  • Housing advocates: Track when tenants report missing heat or hot water.
  • City officials: Review complaint timing and closure delays.
  • Journalists: Compare seasonal complaint patterns across neighborhoods.
  • Researchers: Study complaints alongside local rent and renter prevalence.

Questions to explore

  1. How sharply do complaints rise in winter and fall in summer?
  2. Do complaints take longer to close in areas with more renters?
  3. How do complaint patterns differ across neighborhoods and years?

Columns

id
Sequential identifier for the record; no unit.
reported_at
Date and time the complaint was recorded, in UTC.
days_to_close
Elapsed time from filing to closure, in days.
closed_at
Date and time the request was closed, in UTC.
income_level
Plain-language income category for the block group; no unit.
median_income_usd
Median household income in the block group, in US dollars.
median_rent_usd
Median gross monthly rent in the block group, in US dollars.
renters_pct
Share of homes that are renter-occupied, as a percentage.
city
City or EDK region matched to the complaint; no unit.
latitude
North-south position in WGS84 decimal degrees.
longitude
East-west position in WGS84 decimal degrees.
source
Name of the public dataset the complaint came from; no unit.
month
Calendar month of the complaint, numbered 1 to 12.

Sources

EDK-1 · EDK
EDK's spatial model: matches every record to its place and joins the context around it.
311 Service Requests 2010 to 2019 · New York City
Earlier New York City tenant complaint records (See source)
NYC 311 Service Requests from 2020 to Present · New York
Recent New York City tenant complaint records (See source)
Cincinnati 311 · Cincinnati
Cincinnati tenant complaint records (See source)
American Community Survey 5-year (block group) · US Census Bureau
Block-group income, rent and renter-occupancy measures (See publisher)

Released under CC BY-SA 4.0. Credit "EDK (edk.earth)" and the sources, and share what you build from it under the same license.

Good to know

  • Complaints are reports, not a count of every home without heat or hot water.
  • Most entries are from the Bronx, so the geographic mix is uneven.