An apartment complex in frigid Colorado Springs has residents outraged and children crying in pain due to a lack of heat.
Temperatures in Colorado fell below zero during an arctic freeze that swept across the country, but the heat at the Marquette Heights apartment complex has been off for more than three weeks, tenants claim.
Tenant Jessalynn Nostrum shared VOS21: ‘It started to get super cold in my apartment. I noticed every night that my child and I were freezing.’
Nostrum said she had to ask for a space heater on Facebook after her four-year-old son woke up crying from the cold.
She said she first noticed the heating problem in late December and made numerous calls to report the problem, but no resolution had been reached as of Tuesday.
An apartment complex in frigid Colorado Springs has left residents, including Jessalynn Nostrum (pictured), furious and children crying in pain due to a lack of heat
Temperatures in Colorado fell below zero during an arctic freeze that swept across the country, but the heat at the Marquette Heights apartment complex has been off for more than three weeks
The building was without heat due to a fault in the boiler system, the leasing office told tenants
The Marquette Heights apartment complex consists of two buildings, and Nostrum lives in one of the 60 apartments that are home to affected families, children and elderly tenants.
The building is without heat due to a fault in the boiler system, the leasing office told tenants, but did not say when the problem will be resolved.
“It would be minus three degrees in my apartment,” Nostrum said, adding that her son would wake up shivering during the night.
The average temperature in the area was around 30 degrees in early January, but dropped below zero last week.
On January 4, she desperately sought help on social media and asked for a space heater.
By the time she had called four different companies to report the boiler problems, they all told her to call another company to file the report.
“No one notified us, no one emailed us, like nothing happened. We only noticed it when we were all collectively frozen,” Nostrum said KTV.
“I was tired of really feeling like I was being ignored.”
Renters have their children wrapped in multiple layers of blankets at night and make sure they are away from fire hazards
Nostrum desperately sought help on social media on January 4, asking for a space heater
Although she eventually received two space heaters from one of her neighbors, the mother is still concerned about her and her son’s safety.
‘I make sure I turn them off at night, but I can’t say that every resident does that. So it appears there is a high risk of fire in this building at this time.”
Another tenant, Olivia De La Cruz, has similar concerns: “My biggest concern was that the children were hot and bothered, especially at night, with me getting up to check if they were still warm.”
The mother of two keeps her four-year-old son and seven-month-old daughter wrapped in several layers of blankets at night and ensures they are away from fire hazards.
Other residents declined to be interviewed for fear of retaliation or eviction, FOX reported.
One of the tenants shared a text message with the leasing office, stating: ‘My apartment is very cold. This is not my first message to you about the heat I experienced last week.’
‘A few months ago I also informed you about the heat in my apartment. But it’s freezing outside and it’s very cool inside,” they continued.
The tenant requested space heaters, but the leasing office did not immediately respond.
One of the tenants shared a text message with the leasing office, stating: ‘My apartment is very cold. This is not my first message to you about the heat I know last week’
Other residents declined to be interviewed for fear of retaliation or eviction
An HVAC inspector was called to the building’s boiler room and discovered limescale and erosion in the boiler.
They said the boiler should have been replaced 25 years ago, even though it passed an inspection in 2022, according to Nostrum.
“I especially wanted him (the owner) to realize that the people in his building are suffering and that he needs to take the right action, not just in this one case, but in the future,” she said.
Nostrum added that the leasing office recently started lending out space heaters, but did not specify when the heating problem could be resolved.
A two-bedroom apartment in the building costs between $1,330 and $1,500 per month, according to Apartments.com.
Marquette Heights Apartments did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.