HOUSTON – People who live at a Spring Branch apartment complex are begging for help.
They say not only are they hungry because they had to throw all their food away, but now health concerns are now surfacing because they have been without electricity for a week.
This is all happening at the Valencia Spring Branch apartment complex.
Moses Lopez who lives there says it’s so hot inside his apartment that he and his children have to stay outside where the near triple digit heat index feels cooler.
He says he and his young children are being eaten by mosquitoes.
Lopez and his neighbors tell KPRC 2 they’ve been waiting a week for management to fix the power after last week’s storms.
“They told us that they gave CenterPoint permission to fix it, when that’s not true,” said another tenant named Rocio Moreno.
CenterPoint sent us a statement saying, “Our infrastructure at this location is working appropriately, we can confirm it is the customer’s equipment that needs to be repaired at this time.”
We think we found the problem. A downed power pole that’s yet to be repaired.
“It’s been a struggle this past seven days nothing but heat, our food went to waste,” Moreno said.
We tried getting property managers to take action but instead of calling a company to fix the issue, they called 911 on us.
With four officers said we would be trespassing if we didn’t leave, we left to avoid being arrested.
Meanwhile attorneys with Lonestar Legal Aid say tenants should send repair demand letters by certified mail to the landlord explaining their conditions. If a week passes and nothing happens, they can likely sue. This letter can also be found at the Lone Star Legal Aid website on the resources link in the top right corner.
The attorneys we spoke to also told us tenants do have the right to invite someone inside their home as long as there’s no illegal activity, and the guest is not overstaying the time as allowed in the lease.