Apartment residents unable to contact management that left them without heat or power in SE Houston

Tuesday, December 27, 2022
ACTION 13: Vulnerable residents left hopeless without power or heat
Action 13 looks into why residents of The Park at Sutton Hill were left without power or heat in below-freezing temps for at least four days.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Dozens of residents in a southeast Houston apartment complex have been left without answers from management after being left without heat or power since Thursday.

ABC13 has received several tips from people across the area still feeling the impacts of the arctic blast that made its way to the Houston area last week.

Residents at the Park at Sutton Hill Apartments said they feel defeated, angry, and hopeless.

"I am diagnosed with breast cancer, and I just moved here last Friday," one woman said. "And this is what I'm getting? Sixty-seven years. We can't bear this at night. This is not right."

SEE ALSO: Tenant frustrated Harris County apartment complex shut off water to prevent pipes from bursting

Paris Palmer and Jacob Gregory have a toddler and had to spend Christmas in the cold.

"We are just cold, trying to stay warm, but it's been terrible," Palmer said. "It's the holidays, and it's terrible being without power."

"My son has been shivering. It's ridiculous," Gregory said.

Bobby Williams said his daughter recently died, and instead of mourning her death, he was left to deal with the conditions.

"This was the love of my life, and I can't even mourn," Williams said. "I had no time. I was in shock when that happened, and then this happened. Look how they are treating us. This is inhumane. "

To make matters worse for the residents, management has yet to return any of their calls, and there has been little communication about what is being done to restore power.

RELATED: What CenterPoint is doing to make sure the power stays on during the arctic blast

"Nothing, they aren't even worried about us," Gregory said. "We called the office, the emergency maintenance line. They sent us to voicemail but no one returned our phone calls. They just don't care."

ABC13 reached out to management at the Park at Sutton Hill, but calls have gone unanswered. Our crews were kicked off the property by a security guard who said management told him to tell us to leave, but they won't respond.

Property records state the complex is owned by Blue Magma Residential, LLC in Tampa, Florida. ABC13 has also reached out to them for answers but we have not heard back.

SEE ALSO: Arctic blast 2022: Houston and Harris County officials prepare residents for extreme weather

A CenterPoint truck was seen at the apartment complex and a spokesperson told ABC13:

"Our crews responded to an outage report and determined it was caused by customer-owned equipment. Once the apartments' management repairs their electrical equipment, CenterPoint Energy will be ready to safely restore their power," a spokesperson, spotted inside a CenterPoint truck at the apartment complex, told ABC13.

While this is not a CenterPoint issue, they are reporting 575 customers are still without power as of Monday evening.

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