Apartment complex A/C problem

Scorching heat is making life miserable for some at Heritage Park apartments in north Minneapolis. FOX 9’s Mike Manzoni explains the situation.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Tenants at a north Minneapolis apartment complex are struggling to stay cool as broken air conditioning and other problems remain unresolved during another day of high temperatures.

Tenants at Heritage Park turn to fans as heat rises

What we know:

Several tenants at Heritage Park are relying on fans to keep cool, but temperatures inside the apartments are still reaching the 80s.

“How I’m trying to keep cool is with this fan. I have another fan in that room,” Eddie Robinson, a tenant, told FOX 9 on Monday. “It’s an oven.”

Beyond the lack of air conditioning, tenants are facing other challenges inside and outside the building.

Some apartments have mold and dirty floors, while the exterior shows broken staircases and boarded-up windows.

Repairs and funding struggles at Heritage Park

The backstory:

The court-appointed receiver, Minnetonka-based Certus Financial, said it is waiting for a $5.1 million grant to help with repairs. There is $500,000 in city grant money available, but it can only be used for furnaces, which does not help tenants during the summer heat.

The property receives $85,000 each month from the federal government to help maintain the 200 public housing apartments.

Despite this, the complex is still losing $250,000 every month, according to the firm’s manager, Will Haase.

The property has 440 units, with nearly half set aside for public housing. More than half of the units are vacant, worsening the property’s financial situation.

Haase said his firm is working on patching 30 roofs to address leaks and has already replaced 168 furnaces. While there are still a couple of hundred open work orders, that number is down from more than 2,000 when the receivership began six months ago.

When asked if razing the complex could be an option, he said that is “never not in play.”