Poor residents told to remove window air conditions

“We are going to try to ask for a 30-day waiver or something so we can at least get through this hot season,” Grant Trivett, manager of the 101-unit Tyler Apartment complex, said Friday.

Residents were given 72 hours’ notice to remove the air conditioners after an inspection Thursday by the Real Estate Assessment Center, an independent contractor for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Trivett said air conditioners immediately were removed from four units cited by the inspectors.

“But there are others there that we are going to have to resolve some way or another,” he said. “Hopefully we can find some common ground because as managers we want the folks to have air conditioning.”

Trivett described the inspectors as “independent and arbitrary. They go down their checklist and you don’t negotiate with them.”

“Obstructing an access is a health and safety issue, and that’s a serious violation. We’re in the middle and we have no choice,” he said.

But he hoped to convince the inspectors that other windows in the apartments could suffice for exits.

“I need my air conditioning,” complained resident Sylvia Richardson, who suffers from diabetes, emphysema and congestive heart failure. “They say it’s because there are no back doors, but we had no hand in building this place. Why should we suffer?”

The apartments were built in 1968. “Air conditioning wasn’t as prevalent then as it is now, and the (government) didn’t feel air conditioning was necessary for low-income people,” Trivett said. “Tyler Apartments were built to specifications in force at that time.”

The weekend weather for Johnson City was expected to be hot and muggy with highs near 90 and overnight lows around 70. The heat index for Saturday, a measure of how hot it feels, was forecast to reach 96, the National Weather Service said.

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Information from: Johnson City Press, http://www.johnsoncitypress.com