It’s now a standoff between David Jacques and his landlord: no rent until the furnace is fixed.
“We left him text messages, phone calls, telling him. Telling him that everything was broke and that we’re cold and that we’re running space heaters and what he said is to run the gas stove and which, we’re not going to do because we have pets and a 6-year-old,” Jacques says.
It’s now been a week since Jacques told his landlord he didn’t have heat.
“The lowest it got down to was 52 degrees. We have 3 small space heaters, we use 2 down here for the children, the children and the pets so they stay somewhat warm. We cover them up with blankets,” he says.
While their 6-year-old is comfortable downstairs, the upstairs bedroom is a different story.
“We’re freezing. We’re using three comforters and it’s still not enough,” Jacques says.
We tried talking to the landlord to see what’s going but no answer.
With the landlord absent, others are stepping up, offering to fix the problem.
“It's not always about money. If I can come here and put a 10 dollar part in something, it's not big deal,” says repairman Ron Timmons.
But it’s a big helping hand for Jacques, who lost his job last week after work said he took too much time off for his grandmother’s funeral.
“We’re willing to pay as long as everything is taken care of and we live in a safe home. And to me this isn’t safe living with space heaters and its single digit wind chill out there, negative wind chill and it’s just not safe,” Jacques says.
