Heat, Hot Water Expected To Be Restored To Renaissance 88 Residents By Wednesday Evening
THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) — Some people living without heat or hot water in the Renaissance 88 Apartments in Thornton moved to a motel overnight to keep warm. The repairs are scheduled to be made Wednesday and all residents should have both hot water and heat restored.
The City of Thornton issued building code violations on Tuesday.
The residents who live in the subsidized housing complex have been without heat and hot water on and off for several weeks. One resident was told that management was waiting for a part to make repairs.
According to the City of Thornton, landlords must provide reasonable amounts of hot water and units must be able to reach at least 68 degrees.
According to HUD, Colorado Housing and Finance Agency has been consistently working with management the past week to address these issues.
RELATED: CBS4 Coverage Of Renaissance 88 Apartments
On Wednesday morning, residents in one of the two buildings that had been without heat and hot water had both. That left one building still without.
HUD released this statement to CBS4: On behalf of HUD, I would like to express our deepest concern for any of the residents at Renaissance 88 that have suffered without heat and/or hot water in their units. Our highest priority right now is to ensure that residents have heat and hot water in their units. HUD staff went to the property today where the property management confirmed that as of 7:00 p.m. yesterday, Building 5 heat and hot water was fully repaired. As of right now, the property management company is waiting for the repair company to finish the repair on Building 2. Right now they are calling the residents from Building 2 to see if they are interested in a hotel room if necessary. Thornton Police officers have come out to help by knocking on all the doors at building 5 to see how everything is going there. We will get another report by 3 pm today.
Renaissance 88 is an independently owned and managed property. HUD was first alerted on October 11 by a tenant that their unit was without heat. That day HUD reached out to the contract administrator (in this case CHFA) to notify them of the issue and make sure the problem was addressed as soon as possible. It was only after being alerted by subsequent resident calls later in the month that we found out the problem affected a much larger group. According to property management (FPI), they were not alerted to the larger problem until they heard from us.
After meeting with CHFA, the property management company (FPI), and city officials today, HUD is requiring the following steps to ensure the residents at Renaissance 88 have hot water and heat:
- FPI will do daily survey of both buildings every day this week, which will include updates to HUD, CHFA, and the City of Thornton. The daily survey will require outreach to all residents to make sure no one is without heat/hot water. If all residents have heat and hot water every day until the end of the week, HUD will ask for a survey once a week until we are satisfied that the problem is permanently fixed.
- HUD is requesting an owner action plan for how they are going to move forward to make repairs on plumbing and electrical at this property to make sure this does not happen again.
- Property management will reissue grievance procedures to all residents to make sure property management is the first to know about any issues in the building so they can address those issues as quickly as possible.
The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority released this statement: We have an update that hot water has been restored as of last night in one of the two buildings that remained affected. The part needed for the other building has arrived and is expected to be repaired today. Hotel or vacant-unit accommodations have been offered by property management to residents affected as of last night, and will continue to be available to residents impacted if hot water is not restored in the last building. CHFA will continue to be in communication with property management and the parties involved regarding these issues.
