It’s a sweltering situation for residents at the 200 Carondelet Street apartments who say they’ve been without air conditioning for days.
In a chaotic turn of events while covering this story, WDSU’s news crew was inside a hot elevator when the building experienced a major malfunction.
People who live in the building said, “The building has been out of air for at least three days,” and their “thermostat is saying 91 degrees.”
Hand fans are just one way residents, including Alzena Taylor, tried to stay cool as temperatures inside the building soared past 90 degrees.
“I was on the floor one night, sweating, couldn’t get to the door. I panicked, but I made it through the night,” Taylor said.
According to Brian Lucas, the historic building’s air conditioner system has been out for months. He along with other tenants showed us emails sent to the AOG, the Dallas-based management company, but said all they got back were building notices and one email saying the issue was being worked on.
“The management office is unreachable for a lot of our tenants here, and I find it difficult to think that they’re taking it seriously when they’re not communicative about the issue,” Lucas said.
WDSU reached out to AOG Living Management, trying to get answers, but the woman who picked up the phone said she would connect us with the person responsible for handling communication, requesting a call back number. At the time of the story airing, WDSU did not hear back from the company.
New Orleans Councilwoman Lesli Harris said her office spoke with the company, which offered residents a two-night hotel stay, but residents of the mixed-income property said they still had to pay money they did not have to cover incidental costs.
“This is something that can’t go on. This is exactly why we passed the healthy homes ordinance,” Harris said.
Along with the heating issues, residents are dealing with other malfunctions. WDSU’s reporter Jonah Gilmore and Photojournalist Alden Simon were inside what appeared to be the only working elevator and became stuck between the 19th and 20th floors. Residents said, the issues are unacceptable and the worst part, they can’t get in touch with management.
“They’re not giving us any water. They didn’t call, they didn’t check on us. Management left early. I didn’t even see management today,” Taylor said.
Dozens of residents are now forced to go up and down several flights of stairs, leaving some disabled residents trapped, calling it a serious safety risk, hoping to get answers and action.
READ MORE:Residents at 200 Carondelet forced out after lingering A/C issues
