PARK FOREST, Ill. (WLS) — Heading into a heat wave, one suburban building is now dealing with no air conditioning.
The building has had issues with heating and air for months.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
Residents said they’re paying over $1,600 a month in rent. In south suburban Park Forest, frustration is rising, along with the mercury.
“I’ve reached out to numerous people, but it feels like no one is listening to our concerns. We’re just ordinary people not asking for much,” said Celina Lawson, a resident of Autumn Ridge Apartments.
Residents say the air conditioning in multiple buildings hasn’t been working all season.
“They claim it’s a repair issue, but when the heat first hit, they told us to wait until June 1st. June 1st has come and gone, and still nothing,” shared resident Doreal Veal.
With the temperature in the 80s, in many of the units, fans can only provide so much relief.
“My wife and I are confined to one room with three fans blowing on us. If we want to move to another room, we have to carry all three fans along,” explained resident Ronald Golston Jr.
But fans won’t cut it, with the dangerous heat on the way.
Park Forest Trustee Randall White says there’s only much the village can do.
“The more you push on them, the more they kind of back up, and we don’t want to have these families displaced, but we’re doing everything that we can,” White said. “The management office has air, but the residents, seniors, our families, our babies, our children, they don’t.”
Lawson said all winter her apartment didn’t have heat.
“I’m a working single mom. Can you imagine? I don’t have heat. I don’t have air,” Lawson said.
Messages left for the management company were not returned. The village has set up a cooling center at the Park Forest Police Department and First Baptist Church of Park Forest, where they’re asking people to donate fans.
An Extreme Heat Warning is in effect for Cook County until midnight Tuesday.
Copyright © 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
