Long battle to get AC units repaired coming to a head in Falcon Heights

No AC at Falcon Heights apartment building

Residents at a Falcon Heights apartment building are suffering as their air-conditioning has been broken for months, with no fix ahead of the hottest days of the year. To make matters worse, the windows in the apartment of one resident don't open.

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (FOX 9) - The hottest days of the year are coming this weekend, making a bad situation worse for dozens of people living in the Amber Union apartment complex in Falcon Heights.

Residents say this started almost two months ago, but they could be patient and live with it until the last few days.

At 11 a.m. Thursday, with three fans running, it’s uncomfortable in Lisa Herder’s apartment.

"So right now it's running at 83 [degrees]," Herder said while pointing to a thermostat that registered 85 degrees just a few minutes later, with the temperature outside being 79 degrees.

Her thermostat was set to 72, but in a lot of the Amber Union apartments, the thermostat doesn’t have any control.

"You see I have it set at 68, and it won’t change at all," another resident showed FOX 9.

It was 85 degrees at noon in her apartment, and the tenant recently recorded a temperature of 95 degrees inside.

Herder keeps her blinds closed to avoid the greenhouse effect, but she can’t even take advantage of nighttime breezes.

"The windows do not open," Herder said. "I can't even breathe."

So, like a lot of her neighbors, she suffers.

"It's unbearable sitting in there," Herder said. "I start feeling like I want to panic."

Amber Union opened in 1947 as an art deco office building. It re-opened as a subsidized housing apartment complex in November 2022 and Herder was one of its first residents.

She’s complained about the heat for a couple of months, but nothing has changed.

"'We're waiting on parts. We're waiting on parts,'" Herder said. "I've been told that for two months, and we're waiting."

Her patience has run out, and several other residents are also tired of waiting.

Just outside the fully air-conditioned leasing office, a property manager told me the same story Herder heard: They’re waiting for parts and repairs should start Monday.

If they do happen, it’ll be just in time to be of no help on the hottest weekend of the year.

"I'm really fearful because I don't have somewhere I can just go," Herder said.

Property managers have given all residents a single box fan, but as we mentioned, there are three fans in her apartment, and it was still 85 degrees inside at 5 p.m.