Please follow this link:

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/nyc/housing/services.shtml

especially the sections describing the Help Centers and Volunteer Lawyers Project.

The legal system views your relationship with the board as that of a tenant to a landlord. As is the case with any living situation where a lease is involved, the landlord has certain legal obligations, one of which is the warrant of habitability.

Although I have no first hand experience with the NYC Housing Part, my understanding is that they are very pro tenant. In other words, it's not a place a board wants to have to defend itself for failing to ensure that water does not leak into your apartment.

Why don't you read about the court, go down and talk to someone there, then sue the b******s?