Tenants of senior Chicago apartment still without heat after pipe bursts on Christmas
CHICAGO - What some call the most joyous day of the year turned into a depressing and cold holiday for seniors at the Chicago Housing Authority's Albany Terrace senior apartment building in South Lawndale.
On Christmas morning, pipes burst on the main floor of the building, flooding the vestibule.
Many of the seniors were left without heat in their apartments
"What we got here is a very dire situation," said Charles Odum, chairman of The Union to End Slums. "The pipe burst on Christmas morning at 8 a.m. Around 9 o-clock, I heard pounding on my door from tenants asking me to come down and take pictures of what was going on. When I came down there, it looked like Niagara Falls. From then on there's been no heat in this building. That's three days now."
In addition to the weekend's woes, activists say the building is often without heat, washers and dryers are regularly broken, and the building has a rodent problem and an influx of bed bugs.
The CHA released the following statement in response:
CHA takes these issues very seriously and has been working closely with building management at Albany Terrace to resolve the concerns raised by residents. Repairmen have been onsite throughout the morning and believe the situation will be resolved today. However, any resident who does not feel that they have sufficient heat in their unit will be offered hotel accommodations.
A $100 million renovation at Albany Terrace is scheduled to begin in January. The rehabilitation will include upgrades to residential units and common spaces, improved heating, central air conditioning, new electrical, plumbing replacement, and a new, additional elevator to better serve residents’ needs.