ROYAL OAK, Mich. – A 71-year-old legally blind tenant says he’s been living without heat for days at an apartment complex in Royal Oak.
“You’re at home with heat at night. I’m sitting over here cold, freezing, where’s my heat?” said Durwood Gray, who lives at The Park on 13 Apartments.
Gray has been using a space heater his family provided to stay warm.
When he approached management about the heating problem, he says he was told there was an issue with the complex’s boiler system.
“When I went to the rental office, and I asked them about heat, they said, ‘Well, some people have heat and some people don’t. We don’t know what’s going on, but we’re going to have to get a boiler operator here,” Gray said.
After Gray and his family contacted Local 4 for help, we reached out to the leasing office.
We were told by a leasing agent that the boiler system was turned on just last week and that a contractor would be on site on Friday (Oct. 24) to fix the problem.
Management provided an email that was sent to tenants describing a “small issue” with the heating system.
“Our heating system has been turned on for the season; however, we’ve noticed a small issue that we’re already working hard to fix,” the email reads.
Management also provided Gray with an additional space heater in the meantime.
In addition to the heating issue, despite paying more than $1,500 in monthly rent, Gray said promised accessibility accommodations have never been provided since he moved in last March.
“My son-in-law is a maintenance man himself. When I got moved in, I had him go through my apartment for me to tell me what’s right and what wasn’t right. We had a list,” Gray said. “I gave them the list, but no one seems to want to do anything for me. They look at me like I’m crazy.”
Gray said management had assured him the unit would be equipped with grab bars in the bathroom to accommodate his disability.
“Maybe about a week after I was here, I missed the lip, there’s a lip at the bathroom door, I tripped over it and fell into the toilet and smashed my nose and my lip,” Gray said.
When asked about accessibility accommodations, Local 4 was told the complex had recently changed hands, but that Gray had been given the opportunity to move into a new unit.
Gray said management offered to relocate him to a lower-floor apartment, again promising to make that unit handicap accessible.
“I’m just sick of this, I’m fed up, I’m tired,” Gray said. “If there was another way out, I would surely take it.”