Assisted living tenants complain apartment heating is inadequate

 

MISHAWAKA, Ind.-- Sixty-two degrees is not freezing, but it can be uncomfortable. For some tenants at the Vannoni Living Center, their apartments are stuck at that temperature and they don't know why, or if it's being fixed.

Jerry Coyle is complaining that his apartment at the Vannoni Living Center is too cold, stagnating at about 62 degrees, even with his heat cranked up.

"I got four blankets on my bed," Coyle said. "They don't want you to speak up, they want you to shut up."

He's not alone. Kathy Griffin is another tenant with the same problem.

"Well, I have seven blankets on my bed to sleep at night, very cold," she said.

"We're not allowed space heaters, anything like that," Griffin said. "No electric blankets are allowed. I don't know what we're supposed to do to keep warm."

The issue started before Christmas, they said, meaning they had inadequate heat during the holiday blizzard.

"It was rattling and whistling through the windows," Griffin said. "It was horrible."

"When we had that cold snap, that blizzard, it was 40 degrees in my apartment," Coyle said. "And that's with the heat on."

The pair said they'd tried everything.

"I've complained to the office over and over," Griffin said. "We don't have numbers for the board of directors."

"Emergency maintenance-- they put you on hold and hang up on you," Coyle said. "I did that for 4 days."

Not all tenants are affected, however, but the ones that are say they fear retaliation for complaining.

"You know, we don't want to be threatened to be thrown out every time something happens," Griffin said.

ABC57 reached out to the Mishawaka Housing Authority which oversees this property. They told us any comments have to come from their executive director, who has not called back.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, as a general rule, landlords should keep their buildings at 68 degrees during the day and 62 degrees at night during the winter months, when the temperature outside falls below 55 degrees.