Residents sleep in coats after Highland Park building loses heat for days
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Highland Park homeless shelter lost heat for several days this week, forcing residents to sleep in their coats in frigid temperatures.
The Oasis, built in the 1920s, used to be the old YMCA building in Highland Park. While operating as a homeless shelter, about 50 men on parole are housed in the building.
"No heat at all. It’s a dump. It should be condemned. We haven’t had no heat in here in about four days," one resident said.
Southeast Michigan has been blustery and cold after a winter storm last week brought 3-6 inches of snow to the area.
The Oasis manager, Ronald Black, said the lack of heat was caused by power outages.
"This whole section was out of power," Black said. "When the power came on, you had the pumps that (were) down. Everything had to be reset."
Sharieffe Holliday, another Oasis resident, said he has been sleeping with a coat on under his blanket.
"Some of us are mandated (to be here by) parole, so there’s nothing really we could do," Holliday said.
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Dr. Chad Audi, the president and CEO of the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries that own the Oasis, said heat has been restored to the building.
"If you go right now inside the building now you’ll see that everything is functional," Audi said. "It’s a radiator building, it’s not forced heat. It takes a while to heat the whole building."
However, residents are still complaining that the heat is not reliable.
"It goes off every other day," another resident said. "They don’t tell you sh***. They just tell you they’re going to try and work on it to get it on."
Black says there are floor renovations taking place throughout the Oasis, which has resulted in several windows being left open – contributing to the cold in the building.
"The people on parole, we’re just helping them as much as we can. Finding a place for them, getting them ready to reintegrate back into society," Audi said. "We’re doing our best."