CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - With temperatures topping 90 degrees inside a public housing apartment in Cambridge this week, the people inside are feeling the heat because the air conditioning hasn’t been turned on yet.
Fans are circulating the stifling air but, it is still oppressively hot in the Minoo Abadani’s twelfth-floor apartment, where the thermometer reads 91 degrees.
“This is not acceptable, why,” she asked.
In an apartment on the eighth floor at the LBJ apartment building in Cambridge, a fan is blowing 87 degree air.
“It’s like a sauna,” one resident said.
In the hallways and building offices, the air conditioning is on.
Massachusetts regulation requires heat to be on in apartments from Sept. 15 until June 15 and residents say management has told them they are barred from switching over to air conditioning until then.
“There is a law it goes from September 15 until June 15,” said Tenet Council President Alex Herwitz. “They will not play with the numbers. They won’t change it no matter how many times we have asked them to.”
At the Council Tower in Roxbury, the AC has not been switched on either but, relief may be on the horizon. A notice has been distributed which states the AC will be turned on by Tuesday.
At Torre Unidad in Boston’s South End neighborhood, residents have window ACs
“All these windows were shut air tight and couldn’t be opened,” Roy Webb, who lives in the building said.
He said he had to fight to get the Boston Housing Authority to get windows opened in hallways and stairwells
“It was an unsafe and unhealthy condition for us,” said Webb. “With a five-day heat wave, we should have the windows open anyway.”
Under Massachusetts rules, local boards of health can order the AC be turned on earlier in certain circumstances.
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