Gateway Towers resident Janice Stanley, 60, speaks to those gathered to address the heating concerns in the elderly high rise buildings in a meeting at Boynton Terrace Apartments.Residents in the city’s four public housing sites for the elderly aired grievances over new temperature restrictions in their apartments, but housing officials promised to work to make sure they’re comfortable.
If residents are cold because their thermostats aren’t working properly they should notify maintenance immediately. Whoever responds to the work order will stay until he gets the temperature up to 75 degrees, said Chattanooga Housing Authority Executive Director Betsy McCright.
She was one of several CHA officials who attended a Boynton resident council meeting this week to listen to residents’ concerns about the thermostat controls the housing authority installed to save $100,000 a year. CHA officials have said the savings will be used for repairs and equipment replacements.
The thermostats are set so rooms will be no warmer than 75 degrees in the winter and no cooler than 70 degrees in the summer. By spring the contractor, Honeywell, is supposed to have placed the thermostats in nine of the housing authority’s 16 public housing sites.
But residents such as Joe Clark, vice president of the Boynton Terrace Apartments residents council, said CHA should have focused on insulating the apartments first.