Elderly in stifling hot Melbourne apartments without AC

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Repairs to air conditioning units have been unsuccessful at the Trinity Towers East senior living complex, Eyewitness News has learned. Channel 9’s Field Sutton found out residents have been without air conditioning for three weeks.

Eyewitness News reported a month ago the air conditioning units underwent emergency repairs, but the problem wasn’t fixed.

“It feels like a sweat box. It’s just no air,” said Suzanne Conry.

Conry is in town visiting her mother at the Trinity Towers. She told Eyewitness News she’s trying to make sure her mother survives the summer.

Conry said she’s called every state agency she can think of to get her mother help.

"They keep telling me I need to call other agencies,” Conry said. “And I've called so many of them, I'm just at my wits’ end."

Many residents said they’re worried they’ll be kicked out of their homes if they keep complaining about the building’s disrepair or the broken air conditioners.

"She's paying her rent. She should get what she's paying for,” Conry said.

The owners told Eyewitness News that they've been working on the air conditioning since it first failed in April. They said the string of failures that followed has kept maintenance workers unable to keep up since then.

Residents were told nothing would happen until next week, but the company told Eyewitness News late Friday it's hoping to have the air conditioning fixed Friday night.  The company said half of the air conditioning system was back up around 5:30  p.m.

“We have no place to go. This is the only place we have to live,” said resident Peggy Whitehead.

Trinity Towers is for low- and mid-income senior citizens.

"(I) got sick on Saturday. (I) didn't have any air conditioning and I had to go to the emergency room. I was diagnosed with heat exhaustion,” Whitehead said.

9 Investigates obtained finance records for an organization called Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) who is the owner of the LLC that owns the building.

The nonprofit has six executives who make more than $300,000 a year.

POAH said in an email on Friday.

“The new compressor was delivered to the property on Tuesday and the service technicians have been working on it since.   The installation was completed last evening and the unit was started up but due to an electrical glitch of some sort, the chiller shut down.  A diagnosis was initiated and the problem was identified.  Work is now underway to make the necessary repairs.  We have been informed that they will be completed this evening.

INTERIM ACTIONS: POAH Communities supplied any resident who requested it a table top or floor fan upon request. Since the temperature is cooler on this first floor, the community room was set up as a cooling place for residents where social events are organized. Residents are also invited to spend time in the community room of Trinity Towers West next door which has just been renovated with a new air conditioning system.

RESIDENT NOTICES:

Residents have been apprised of the renovation plans since POAH began comprehensive renovations on Trinity Towers West, East and South and about the sequencing of those renovations. West was completed a couple of months ago.

Written notices were sent to residents on 06/22/16, 06/24/15, and 06/27/16 and the tv monitor in the lobby used for notices was updates continuously on the issue.”

Cox Media Group