Councilman Ritchie Torres introduced a new bill to help New York City better respond to outages as some Bronx residents struggle without heat and hot water during the winter.

The legislation Torres is proposing would require the Office of Emergency Management to respond to heat and hot water issues immediately.

These issues are currently dealt with by the authority that runs the individual building.

Residents at the Patterson Houses in Mott Haven say they have dealt with extreme heat and hot water issues over the past few years. Torres says the complex has had an emergency boiler for two years.

"Public housing should no longer be the forgotten city of New York City," Torres says. "The residents of public housing are entitled to gas, electricity, heat, water and all essentials of human life."

Torres says he wants to treat these issues as an emergency as people's lives could be in danger due to the loss of heat or hot water.

He says the legislation has to go through a committee hearing and then hopefully it will pass next year.

News 12 reached out to NYCHA for comment and has not yet heard back.