DENVER — A summer without working air conditioning is no fun, nor does it make life at home convenient by any means. But that's the obstacle residents at The Norseman Condominiums in Denver have to put up with this hot season.
"The frustrations have been running very high," Barbara Gelston said.
She's lived their for nearly 20 years and says residents have been doing their best to endure the heat, while the condominium struggles to replace the A/C.
RowCal, the new property management company, said supply chain issues have made it difficult for crews to receive the parts they need to fix it.
Residents say the job was supposed to be completed in August, but according management, the time frame has been pushed into September.
While residents there continue to exercise their patience, the reality is some have it worse.
According to a recent city report titled The Energize Denver Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan, roughly 30% of Denver homes do not have air conditioning. The report states this is "especially critical as the region’s average temperatures rise."
Yet, current city building codes do not require residential A/C units, and landlords aren't obligated to install them. But some experts like Healthier Colorado's Kyle Piccola says times are changing.
"Colorado is in a time if you've grown up here where you can remember not needing air conditioning like myself, but now I can't imagine, you know, living without it," Piccola said. "People can't continue to be living in this extreme heat in their homes. We know that that is a non-negotiable moving forward, but we want to make sure that the regulatory infrastructure, the energy efficiency, everything that we're putting in place now and putting on the table as a solution is something that's going to actually help people."
Piccola believes the city needs to reconsider its codes and start thinking about implementing cooling systems for everyone, but in a responsible way, which Sabrina Pacha, senior director of Healthy Air and Water Colorado, also points out.
"In the face of adapting to climate change, certainly we need to start thinking about cooling and homes being similar to the way that we require heating in homes," Pacha said. "I think we need to be careful about how we go about that so that we are creating an energy efficient future for folks and not requiring folks to put on old window units onto apartments that will just exacerbate the problem in the long run."
In a statement to Denver7, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, which enforces housing and residential health rules, said in part, "Historically, air conditioning in our climate has not been considered a regulatory requirement, and to our knowledge, there aren’t any other jurisdictions in Colorado that require AC either."
The statement went on to say, "That being said, with the ever-increasing number of hot days and greater understanding of the health impacts of extreme heat days, it is something DDPHE will review when we next revise the Residential Health regulations."
If a landlord or management company already provides air conditioning, which then stops working, they will likely be obligated contractually to fix it within a reasonable time period.
