As residents at Parkway Gardens and Crescent Pointe remain without heated apartments, there are plans to repair two of the three boilers serving those units and a third will need to be replaced, the News Review learned. Greenbelt’s Director of Planning and Community Development Terri Hruby told the News Review on Tuesday, January 28 that the city hopes the two boilers slated for repair will be working by the end of February. However, removing a broken boiler and installing a new one will be a longer process, she suggests. Twenty-four units impacted by that boiler, all of which are in Parkway Gardens, might not see a better heat solution in the near future. The city will have a better idea of the timeline once the management company, Dreyfuss, has submitted a proposal, said Hruby.
Timeline
Parkway Gardens and Crescent Pointe have been without permanent central heat since October 2024. At the end of October the management company contacted residents to tell them they’d be providing window HVAC units. On November 14, 2024, the city was made aware of the problems with the boilers following a resident complaint. “On November 21, management initiated the replacement of the boiler system with individually installed combined heating and HVAC window units, intending this to be a permanent solution,” explained Hruby. “However, on December 13, the city became aware of issues with the window units, and staff confirmed with the property manager that new efforts were ongoing to address the problems.” The city’s code enforcement conducted their annual inspection on December 18 and issued a notice of violation, requiring corrective actions completed by January 20. As we reported last week, they weren’t.
Hruby didn’t like to say that the apartments are without heat because they have alternative heat sources provided by the management, but in the News Review conversations with residents, one scoffed at that suggestion and several complained they have limited ability to utilize those alternatives, given problems with the wiring in the old buildings. “During the day it’s problematic with the load capacity,” acknowledged Hruby, saying the city is just finding out this information and will continue enforcement efforts. Those efforts include fines that began last week (see the January 23 issue). Hruby couldn’t say exactly when citations were issued because each citation has to be written by hand and they take days to issue, but she confirmed all 54 city citations had been issued and the city began levying fines last week. Evaluations will take place every 10 days going forward and the city will need to see timely progress being made.
Asked about the amount of the fines, particularly in the context of the amount of rent that is being collected from the residents, Hruby says an adopted fee structure sets that amount and courts also specify a maximum allowed, although they could go to court and ask for it to be doubled. Though the management company changed on January 1, the property owner is the one ultimately facing the fines and being held accountable. “We will keep a dialogue with them and hold their feet to the fire,” said Hruby.
Meanwhile, residents continue to feel the cold.
Madeleine Jepsen lives in Crescent Pointe and says she’s received limited communication from the management companies. Residents received a call in the last week of October informing them they would get temporary heating units, then written communication that window units were beginning to be installed and another message that installation would be paused. The window unit installation never got as far as Jepsen’s unit because the whole building lost power when residents tried to run the ones that were in place at the same time, according to Jepsen. The management said they were working with Pepco to update the electrical infrastructure but residents haven’t received any updates on that, says Jepsen. Though she never got a window unit she said her neighbors reported that they didn’t work and brought in air that was colder than that in the apartment anyway.
Since the plan for window units was halted, what Jepsen and others have each been provided was a plug-in radiator. It does provide heat, though it doesn’t heat the whole apartment, reports Jepsen, and she has to turn it off if she wants to use her microwave. Her oven and refrigerator are on a different circuit, which is helpful, and Jepsen says cooking in her oven over recent weeks has helped her warm up a bit. She planned to bake cookies last week to offset the freezing temperatures but gave up when she couldn’t keep the butter melted.
Friends and even the management company have offered Jepsen a second heating unit, but she says it’s not possible to run two at once. “I would love a second radiator,” she says, “but I can’t run them both.” Jepsen bought herself what she describes as “a fake-Sherpa hoodie that goes to my ankles,” so she can stop wearing a blanket like a cape during the day, while she works from home. “Last week when the temperatures were below freezing, it was between 38 and 49 degrees inside my apartment with the electric radiator running,” Jepsen told the News Review. She has a digital thermometer to keep track of the indoor temperature.
Jepsen is most concerned for her neighbors who don’t have anywhere else to go and those who might have to worry about whether or not they have a job in a few months in light of changes for federal employees, on top of struggling with their apartment.