SAN ANTONIO- The temperatures have warmed up today, but over the past few weeks there have been some chilly days and even colder nights.
That has affected some residents living in apartments on the Southeast side. They have had to bear the cold without hot water and other basic necessities because they say their landlord won’t fix a gas leak.
For tenant Valerie Rodriguez the conditions have been especially trial some because she brought her newborn baby home those conditions and she says as a result he got sick.
“I took him to the hospital because he was really sick and he had a lot of mucus in his eyes so I was really concerned and I took him and they told me it was because of the coldness in the home,” explained Rodriguez.
Little Giovanni is only three weeks old and from the start he has only known what it's like to be cold. His mom says the small efficiency that she rents behind a house has gone without gas to heat water properly for 18 days. CPS energy needed to shut it off after finding gas leaks.
Rodriguez said, “I paid my rent and actually when I had got out of the hospital this happened and I had just paid him the rent and that's when everything started with the gas and everything”.
Her neighbor Esther Cano says she is disabled so the trouble of boiling water for a sponge bath in her shower is wearing on her.
“It's hard, boiling water mainly because we have to take frequent baths,” explained Cano, “and then to eat is kind of hard with just two skillets”.
She called News 4 WOAI for help after she said her landlord said the heating would be fixed last week, but that didn't happen, so I caught up with the owner, Valentín Ramos. He said the plumbers will take care of the problem today (Monday).
The city's code compliance will then need to check out the repairs before CPS Energy can turn the gas back on. Since that could take a couple of more days, you can bet News 4 WOAI will be checking in with them to see if the gas is back on.
