CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati mother and her three children have been without heat in their Elmwood Place home for over two months.
Naytoria Simms said her heating problems began in November, right before Thanksgiving, when she noticed her home wasn't warming up despite the thermostat reading around 70 degrees.
"I had called (my landlord) and told them that the heat wasn't pulling through," Simms said. "It was getting cold in here — even though the thermostat said 70 to 71, it was still freezing in here."
WATCH: A single mom says her home hasn't had heat in two months. Here's why
Multiple heating companies visited the property and provided repair estimates for the boiler, Simms said, but her landlord denied them. Simms showed us on Thursday a log of maintenance requests she has made to fix the issue.
"They took the boiler front end apart, and they told me that the boiler was busted inside the water tank, so it was not pulling. That's why it's not pulling the heat like it's supposed to," Simms said.
We reached out to the property management company, Evergreen Live, on Thursday. We are still waiting to hear back from a company representative.
A company has been providing temporary space heaters while working on an estimate. Simms said the company planned to retrieve the heaters on Thursday, leaving her with only one functioning space heater.
"Once they come get their heaters, it's like, I don't have no other explanation. I have nothing," Simms said.
Simms said her utility bill has increased by nearly $200 in February due to the space heaters.
"The utilities (have skyrocketed) since been using space heaters," Simms said.
Simms said her landlord suggested buying additional space heaters, offering to reimburse her $170 for them.
"It's gonna cost more than that to get space heaters for the whole house," Simms said. "I probably need three down here, one upstairs, and then another one downstairs."
She said she has contacted both the Cincinnati Health Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about the situation. Both agencies are scheduled to conduct inspections with her in the coming days.
The landlord has not offered alternative heating solutions, Simms said.
"If you're a landlord, just keep up all your stuff," Simms said. "These people out here suffer to pay rent as it is, to pay gas, electric as it is, so the least you could do is make sure they have a warm home to go to. And I'm a single parent, so I do all of this by myself."
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