Milwaukee tenants seeks help as cold weather worsens no-heat conditions
Milwaukee tenant says apartment without heat for weeks
A Milwaukee tenant says weeks without heat forced her family to use stove burners to stay warm, as city officials warn of rising no-heat complaints during dangerous cold.
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee tenant says weeks without heat in his apartment has left a family struggling to stay warm during dangerously cold weather.
Local perspective:
Without working heat, Princeton Larry said his family has resorted to unsafe alternatives.
"We turn it on probably every day," said Larry, referring to the stove burners used to warm the apartment. "When we turn it off, no more heat."
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Larry said he knows the method is dangerous but feels like there is no other choice. He and his family say their Berrada Properties-managed apartment has been without heat for weeks.
Yolanda Bowman said the issue has been ongoing despite repeated attempts to get help.
"He knows there wasn’t any heat in here," Bowman said. "The heat works off my stove."
Big picture view:
City officials discussed heat-related housing complaints last week, warning about the dangers of tenants turning to unsafe heat sources.
"You pay your rent, you have a livable space. Not having heat and or not having water is a blatant violation of that contract," said Aaron Lipski, chief of the Milwaukee Fire Department.
The Department of Neighborhood Services says no-heat cases have spiked this winter.
"Not put in a situation rather where they end up using some other source to heat their room. And then that causes a fire," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
Lipski said landlords who fail to respond in extreme cold are putting lives at risk.
"Not answering the phone when those things go wrong, in my estimation, when it’s 10 below zero, is criminal," Lipski said. "Probably not by the legal sense of the word, but these are human beings in these buildings."
What they're saying:
Bowman said the family has been promised repairs that never came.
Milwaukee apartments see water damage, heat outages during cold snap
Milwaukee tenants say they have been without heat for days at Berrada Properties apartments during a cold snap, with some also reporting water damage and burst pipes.
"They said they were going to send somebody out and they never sent nobody out," she said.
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As of Tuesday night, Larry and Bowman said the problem still had not been resolved.
"I feel bad. All that money he’s trying to come and get. I believe he don’t deserve it," Bowman said.
FOX6 contacted Berrada Properties by phone and email to ask about the tenant’s complaints but had not received a response.
What you can do:
The city reminds tenants that if a landlord does not respond within 48 hours, they should contact the Department of Neighborhood Services for help.
Officials also warn never to use a stove to heat a home.
Safer alternatives include wearing layers, using electric blankets, operating space heaters safely, opening blinds during the day to let sunlight warm rooms, and covering windows at night to trap heat.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.