Brutally cold temperatures make it difficult for furnaces to reach the required 67 degrees. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
Melissa Balistreri, 23, joked that a friend describes her apartment as a sauna, but Tuesday morning, when the recorded temperatures ranged from 1 to 11 degrees, she noticed that her apartment was getting cold.
Despite a space heater, the temperature in her apartment continued to drop. Concerned about the health of her 1-year-old son, the single mother called Prowess Commercial Real Estate, which manages the building at 2484 S. 9th St. for the owner, Waterstone Bank. An employee who was shoveling snow at the building was sent to her apartment and told Balistreri he would raise the boiler temperature.
When she woke up Wednesday, it was very cold and she called Prowess again and got no answer. Thinking they would surely follow up with her, she didn’t leave a message.
By Thursday, it was 50 degrees in the apartment. She left messages with Prowess throughout the day and didn’t get a call back until late afternoon. The maintenance supervisor told Balistreri that she hadn’t gotten the messages because the company was moving offices. She said she would send someone to fix the heat that afternoon. By then Balistreri felt her son’s health was in danger, so she took refuge at an aunt’s home.
Again Friday, she was unable to reach anyone at Prowess. When she checked in at her apartment, she found the company had put a space heater in her dining room and had left it turned on in the empty apartment. Balistreri noted that not only was this a fire hazard, it was also running up her electric bill. The temperature in her bedroom registered 40 degrees on Friday evening.
Prowess could not immediately be reached for comment.
Balistreri said she planned to call the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) on Monday morning but expects she will have to remain with her aunt through the weekend.
Complaints about a lack of heat to DNS increased dramatically this week. Between Monday and mid-afternoon Friday, the department had received 74 complaints from residents who have no heat and “significantly more” than that reporting insufficient heat, according to spokesman Todd Weiler. In a normal winter week, the department gets about 10 complaints, he said.
The City of Milwaukee building code requires that the inside residential temperature, as measured three feet above the floor, be at least 67 degrees, according to Weiler.
He noted that this requirement does not apply when outside temperatures fall below 10 degrees below zero, because a Wisconsin energy code limits the size of heating units that can be used to heat homes.
If renters have insufficient heat, Weiler said, they should first contact their landlords. If they can’t reach them or don’t get results, they should call DNS at 414-286-2268 and DNS will attempt to contact the landlord. If that does not result in a remedy, Weiler said residents would be required to move to an alternate location. “Right now a lot of the emergency shelters are full up with homeless people, so it’s going to be a very difficult situation,” he added.
Weiler also cautioned that using a cooking stove, a propane or kerosene space heater, or any solid-fuel heating device inside a building other than a fireplace is illegal and dangerous. In addition to posing a risk of fire, such heaters consume a lot of oxygen and can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, he said.
Now this upsets me. Tenants like this that make false complaints. To DNS for no reason. But to try and get something for nothing. I am the maintenance manager for Prowess real estate. The first time I received a call about her heat was Wednesday I sent a tech to look at it. The radiators were so hot you could not touch it. For the temperature outside the boiler was working as hard as it could. I received a second no heat call from her late Thursday afternoon. Now if you do not leave a message the first time how will we know to call you back. So if she called in the morning how would we know that. My tech responded again at 530pm Thursday night as with the snow and cold weather we had other issues to take care of as well. I received a call from my tech at 545 stating that the boiler was completely down. I myself responded to the job. Before I went I sent my tech to buy space heaters for each occupied unit. Heaters that with one will heat 400 sq ft. With no issue and are fire safe. For the time being until we got the heat up and running. Unfortunately we were unable to get the heat running that night despite all of our efforts even calling a heating company. Due to lack of parts. We had the building back heated early Friday afternoon. So for that tenant to complain is for no reason at all we did everything in our power to keep her comfortable and safe.