Senior Citizens Without Central Air Demand Fix

A judge gave the building management, including Friendship Baptist Church, until mid-August to fix the central air. The judge also ordered rent to be abated for the month of July while the landlord made the necessary changes.

But Brooks says she’s tired of having to wait for a more permanent solution. She and a group of residents first filed a lawsuit about the air conditioning issues in May.

“Especially with air conditioning for elderly people. You got people that are bedridden. I don’t know how they’re surviving. I really don’t,” Brooks said. 

The building’s management installed a central cooling unit on top of the building last month, but she said it still hasn’t been working. Because the portable units are limited to the space immediately surrounding them, the hallways and elevators are without any air conditioning. Brooks pointed to a vent by the elevator on the second floor, and said air hasn’t been coming out.

Last week, she traveled from her apartment on the eighth floor to another resident’s apartment on the second floor. 

“By the time I got out here, I was so hot I felt like fainting,” Brooks said of her journey in the building.

Sam Young, the asset manager of the building, attributed the delay is to due to the building’s age and the need for special-made parts. 

“That’s like putting a brand-new engine in a raggedy car – an old car,” Young said. “It sometimes can cause other things to happen, and that’s basically what happened here.” 

Young says everything should be up and running by the end of the week.