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With no hot water, residents of Denver apartment building protest outside

Posted at 5:37 PM, Dec 26, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-26 19:42:20-05

DENVER -- For two days the residents of California Park East Apartments have been without hot water after the building's water heater broke on Christmas Eve. But the cold water has some residents boiling over.

"It is a shame!" yelled Walter Marshall through his bullhorn outside of the building. "There is no hot water! Give us the hot water and we will calm down!"

Marshall organized a protest outside of the building to get the attention of management. He says several people in the building, including himself, depend on hot water, especially in the wintertime.

The protest on Sunday, that started as a movement of one person, quickly grew to a dozen residents of the building, yelling and marching to get the attention of the staff.

"It makes me want to cry. Fix it up. Come on now," said Rosalyn Stewart, and elderly resident in the apartment building. "It doesn’t need to be this bad. They need to fix it up."

The management tells Denver7 that they have been working to resolve the issue for the dozens of residents who live in the building, but the Christmas holiday has made repairs and purchasing new parts difficult.

"Our concern is with the residents first and foremost," said Kenneth Floyd, the executive director of Karat Management and Development, LLP that oversees the California Park East Apartments. "We have had the general contractor working on that system since 12 noon on Christmas eve."

Floyd explained that, because the parts cannot be purchased on the holiday weekend, residents may continue to be without hot water until Monday.

"This is public housing. This is independent living. They can always address it, and they have a right to address it any way they want," Floyd said.

Residents say they will keep protesting until the water heater is fixed.

"We don’t have any place to wash. We are old and we sit there and it is sad," said Stewart. "They need to fix it up because this is too much."