Brooklyn Park residents without heat during single-digit temperatures

Brooklyn Park tenants say heat has been out for days in dangerous cold

Tenants in the Huntington Place apartments say the heat is out in extremely cold temperaturs, and they are frustrated with the lack of response from the property management company.

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) - Some families in Brooklyn Park say they don't have a warm place to escape the cold.

In Anne Okere's apartment, five space heaters are running because the heat is not.

"The first night was really, really cold because I woke up to 44 degrees," Okere said.

Sgt. Mark Bergeron said Brooklyn Park police were first made aware of the situation through 911 calls from families at Huntington Place Apartments. He said multiple units in multiple buildings do not have heat.

Okere said the heat has gone out before this winter, but this time it’s dangerous amid sub-zero temperatures. For three days, she has been taking drastic measures, even using the oven to heat up the cold space.

"It's like an outhouse. You don't want to go to the bathroom. I haven’t taken a shower for three days because … I didn't want to expose myself to the cold air," Okere said.

She found a warm refuge inside her neighbor Drew Tucker’s unit.

"(She) called me about three or four days ago and the heat was out. So I told her she could come over to my house," Tucker said.

Brooklyn Park police stepped in to help on Christmas, recognizing that many stores aren’t open and residents are left with few options.

"We looked through the police department in some of the administrative and detective offices and found some space heaters that staff had. We gathered those up and brought them down to the residents that we're aware of that needed assistance," Bergeron said.

Residents say they're grateful for the help but frustrated with the lack of response from their property management.

"Swear words weren't cutting it. I was that mad," Okere said. "This is life-threatening weather, and this is getting to be too much BS."

Tucker added, "People have kids. People have families. People can't sleep in this. How can y'all go to sleep and ignore us?"

The property management company is the non-profit Aeon. A spokesperson for Aeon told FOX 9 they're working to provide an update on the situation. But in the meantime, the spokesperson said a heat outage is considered a maintenance emergency, and when the indoor temps dip too low, they provide space heaters to residents.