MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Residents at The Venue apartment complex have gone two weeks without hot water and three without heat.
While the complex said the issues were related to the carbon monoxide leak they dealt with weeks ago, they also informed residents the issues would be resolved within days.
Kiersten Simon, a resident at the complex, received a message from the apartment’s management on November 14 saying, “I just wanted to let everyone know that I do know there is no heat yet, I just got off the phone with the heating and air company, we do have to get a new boiler, they said by next week it should be installed, I would get a little space heater for the meantime.”
MLGW informed ABC24 the gas was turned off on December 1 to deal with the leak. However, messages from the property management show services were off before then – with messages from November 14, 22 and 23.
“They told us … you can stay in one of our vacant properties,” Simon said. “It has no furniture, but it has heat.”
She also said she’s been finding other locations to get everything she needs to be done.
“I’ve been showering at work at the hospital and then at school on campus,” Simon said.
Although she’s been able to find other avenues to take care of herself, she said it makes her upset that this is something everyone in the building has to deal with.
“I really feel bad for other people because I know that there’s a lot of people here who don’t have friends and family and can't just go shower somewhere,” Simon said. “I mean, gym memberships include showers too, but who wants to pay for a gym membership just to go take a shower.”
When it comes to speaking out about the endless issues, Kiersten said she’s tried, and so have others. They said the lack of proper response from management has led residents to take further action.
“We used to have fliers down at the bottom of the elevator with tenant information like “pick up after your dogs” [and] people were actually writing on it “no heat, no rent,” and within 30 minutes or so, someone had already ripped it down and got rid of it,” Simon said.
Along with residents needing to purchase their own heaters and heated blankets to deal with fluctuating Memphis winter weather, residents say they've also dealt with bugs, discolored water and water in the walls – issues they say have been written off as normal due to the location of the apartment.
"Pests are an extreme problem. Which, I don't know because I’ve heard people say ‘well, you’re down by the river and it's Memphis.' So I don’t know if that’s a thing but it’s so bad I can’t cook anything,” Simon said.
She also said she wouldn’t have lived in this building if she thought they wouldn’t provide utilities, despite the advertisement of utilities included on their website. The Venue advertises affordable prices and the inclusion of utilities on both its website and social media.
“I would not have moved here if I didn’t think that they would honor their agreement to provide utilities,” Simon said. “I mean, I can understand with there being an issue, taking a few days to get it fixed but I mean we’re going on two weeks.”
ABC24 has reached out to the apartment management and corporate regarding the issues and has not received a response. We’ll provide an update once we have one.