Gillespie Towers power outage going on week 4
I help some seniors and some disabled people who live in a apartment building known as Gillespie Towers located in Muncie, Indiana. I don't get paid for the help I give as I volunteer to help friends I have met throughout the last decade because of another friend moving into that building. I am well known to the residents and well liked as I also have been a major donor to their bingo games for prizes as being self employed I always have extra merchandise to donate.
The power has been out for nearly a month
The first floor has maintained power and for the first week or so some apartments had power and some didn't. Media hasn't been allowed in the building and tenants are afraid if they speak out and really tell the media what is going on they will be evicted and kicked out. Sadly they are stretching the truth and flat out lying about the situation.
They claim to be feeding them
Churches have provided 12 meals in all since this has been going on for the last 28 days or so. Diabetics are not getting the proper food they need to maintain their sugar levels. Gillespie Towers has not provided any meals for the tenants, they refuse to replace the food that went bad and are not giving the tenants a break on rent. But no worries they are going to collect laundry vouchers for the tenants to do their laundry on the 1st. A SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO THE CHURCHES HELPING THE RESIDENTS.
Gillespie Towers Currently is a fire hazard
Pictures are worth a thousand words right? This situation is on every floor.
The smell is horrible
The smell is horrible, it smells bad like a pile of dirty diapers along with a rotting smell, I hope they are making sure noone has died. As there are around 100 apartments in the building and it stinks bad. But then there is also crap like this that can't be good for the tenants as this is supposed to be one of the laundry rooms.
They say they are doing all they can
But this has been going on for close to a month now. The apartments have an extension cord going from the hallways into the apartment to run the fridge, which they didn't do till after the food rotted and most who live there are low income and can't afford to replace their food. I am writing this to get what is really going on there. As the residents are too scared to speak out. One resident told me they want to leave but people keep coming in and not locking up when they leave so residents are scared their stuff will be stolen. Another resident had them come in during the middle of the night to plug in his fridge to the extension cord and didn't wake him he had ice in his freezer to keep his insulin cold and because they didn't wake him he woke to his insulin frozen. A third resident told me that the smell is getting worse every day.
Please pray for my friends at Gillespie Towers
They need prayers that this gets fixed sooner than later. And pressure to prorate some rent or give them a break next month on some of it because this isn't right. A regular landlord would be in a load of trouble by now, a HUD building should not get a pass because it is low income government housing for the elderly and disabled. And they say it happened on July 6th and that is not true it was going on in June but only was affecting some apartments. It was July 6th when it hit the rest of the building. You can read the news story here but the real story you just read.
@charisma777 -- Thanks for sharing this!
If there is a way to make this meme a bit larger, it would be even MORE helpful. Perhaps, a link to the site where you received it.
You could actually write your OWN article here about Tenants' Rights. Perhaps, you already have. I haven't been here that much to see what was going on here lately -- though one thing I'm always happy to find is that, whenever I get here is that you and my goddaughter, @tecnosgirl, are always right out there in the field fighting for the rights of marginalized people!!!
Keep fighting the good fight!!!
Praying for the residents. I hope their ac is working before it gets too hot! 4 weeks is a long time to go without power. I really hope the can be compensated for this.
Posted using Partiko Android
Sadly no it is not except on the first floor, the first floor has power and air so they can go down to the lobby
To Clarify many residents want to relocate while the power is out, but they don't trust that when they come back home what little they have won't be stolen. Then there are others who would like to go some where else but because of their disabilities sleeping on cot will not work nor is the "location" they have set up for residents wanting to leave the building, isn't set up for oxygen. And many residents decided to move and have moved already over this. But many others can't afford to move even if they wanted to move.
my concern is what about those who are in wheelchairs, aren't some of them located on other floors, and with no electricity how are they getting relief?
The Elevators are working as they are connected to a back up generator. And they only get relief if they go downstairs into the lobby but even though the air is kind of working on the first floor it isn't all that cool there either. But the air is moving and the smell isn't as bad on the first floor.