Residents of the Sierra Bonita apartments, a 42-unit building for low- and very low-income disabled people, have been without hot water since last Thursday.
Two residents of the building have expressed their anger about the outage to WEHOville and city officials. Walter Maynard, director of property and asset management for West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, which owns the Santa Monica Boulevard building, said this afternoon that the boiler is being installed now and should be in operation today.
Maynard said it took a week to resolve the issue because WHCHC had to order a part for the boiler from a supplier on the East Coast. However, he said, when it became apparent that it would take a while for the part to be delivered, WHCHC decided to take a more expensive and faster approach and replace the entire boiler.
Maynard agreed that residents have been without hot water, but he noted that solar panels on the building’s roof have helped it deliver tepid water, which he said was at 90 degrees on Monday.
WHCHC and the City of West Hollywood also have arranged for residents to take the free CityLine/CityLineX shuttle to the WHCHC’s Movietown Plaza low-income housing project to take showers there and to West Hollywood Park, where showers have been available from 6 a.m. to 9 or 9:30 p.m., except on Saturdays and Sundays, when they close at 2 p.m.
@Instant It seems you believe that all residents that live at Sierra Bonita are all functioning at full and healthy capacity ,and one or two are super complainers who never miss a chance to do so. Let me tell you about REAL LIFE ; my best friend lives there and is a 40 year+, type 1 , brittle juvenile diabetic , who’s health is tenious on a good day and is scheduled to have stent put in her pancreas in two weeks.Due to her chronic and cruel disease she has additional medical issues and with no ability to shower when… Read more »
@To The Left:
First I’m sure no one believes disabled residents of subsidized housing deserve less or any residents for that matter.
Secondly, what has kept the residents from obtaining a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge?
Thirdly, have you voiced your concerns before City Council or is that another resident?
Apparently the Los Angeles Health Department has some jurisdiction over heating and hot water matters., have you contacted them?
A mediator from the city attended a Sierra Bonita resident meeting 6 months ago. Residents reported the alarm from the boiler room had been going off for 5 or 6 days at a time…. for several months. The alarm and the lack of lighting at night on the front staircase were blamed on a timer ….. by the regional manager for the John Stewart Company. Instead of changing the light bulbs on the front staircase that Friday….. Caution tape was immediately tangled through the railings up to the 5th floor to prevent residents from using the stairs until someone got… Read more »
I know a few residents at this building and have been inside two of the units. Yes these tenants should be thankful but that does not give the WHHC a reason to neglect or take for granted any tenants right to the services that are basic life services. The overlooked information is that there are solar panels and the water was tepid, not freezing.. but the suggestion to take a bus to a pool is absolutely pathetic again absolutely pathetic. Honest whoever made that plan should be fired. Management should have put the residents first and solved this problem before… Read more »
@Cathy: There was no point missed. Perhaps communication would be more effective if management or the city were approached in a reasonable manner over services presumbly not available of not delivered Seems to me there is a resident of this particular building who never misses an opportunity to disparage the building, the city council, WHCHC and the management company at an assortment of commissions, boards and the CC. The public has been subjected to these tirades for years which seems to rub salt in whatever wound existed for whatever reason. Amplifying this via Wehoville to the public is not a… Read more »
@ INSTANT SOLUTIONS seems to me you’re missing a point…it’s about compassion and communication. Yes, I am sure most of us have had to endure no hot water or heat or whatever…..BUT FYI this is a 7 year old building (not historic) and this is the 3rd time this year the “thankful” residents have had to endure a week without hot water…. the “management” at Sierra Bonita is inept, at best. They “informed” the disabled residents of the broken boiler by posting a notice for part of one day in the elevator! Now suppose you live on the first floor… Read more »
Sadly, this kind of post represents the worst of WeHoville reporting – harping on an unfortunate incident outside of people’s normal control, to cast a disparaging finger wag so folks like Cathy can clutch pearls and express moral outrage over a glitch. How about the narrative changing to “what an amazing job WHCHC did” to spend the huge bucks to replace a boiler that shouldn’t have broken for the benefit of the subsidized very low rent paying tenants.” No – it’s all outrage. Sadly, Voolavex shows you how real landlords (and the City of WeHo) operate. Let’s focus on that… Read more »
Please do consider the fact that these are low-income people with disabilities who are at far greater risk, than those of us fortunate enough to be able bodied individuals who can quite literally survive far greater adversity. Without a place like the Sierra Bonita apartments many of the residents would part of the homeless, with a hundred more like it in West Hollywood there would be no homeless problem here. Before that idea is shot down by angry troll posts shortly after its appearance, do consider a few facts of the case. It would be cheaper to house the homeless… Read more »
I live in WeHo (29 tears). My heater clapped out on Nov 21st. Gasman red tagged it. We will be getting a new one on Wednesday right after Christmas. We finally had to go to the city – which was not our 1st choice. This is not Point Barrow or the Barrens in Canada – but it is chilly. Various reasons were offered before the kind folks; Jeff Jones and Jeff Aubel, at Public Works intervened And yet there will be no penalty for the owner; no break on the rent, no nothing. Does that sound right? I am cold… Read more »
@Cathy & all those with their feathers falling out: Utility problems happen, THIS IS REAL LIFE. If you were owner of the house or building you would work it out and do the same thing Walter Maynard apparently did. He made a judgement call and decided to replace rather than wait. The residents should be thankful someone was on it. There is no app for instantly beamed solutions to glitches in life. Folks that live in historic buildings periodically have these inconveniences as parts wear out in boilers, boilers need to be replaced and sometimes even radiators stop functioning. At… Read more »
Question: How long would any of you reading this be willing to put up with NO hot water during one of the coldest weeks…..
….disgraceful….
Never mind, it has been corrected.