Surprise bathroom renovations inconvenience Stamford apartment residents
STAMFORD — Keisha Taylor, who has lived in her West Side apartment for 21 years, got a note in the door last Friday that said she’d soon get a new bathroom.
Work would start Monday, the note said, and for three days next week she’d have no shower beyond the kitchen sink. If the need to use the toilet arose during the day, her family could use nearby port-a-potties parked in the Connecticut Avenue complex’s common area. Contractors would return the toilet each night.
The impromptu renovations were a surprise to Taylor and have left her and neighbors fuming, stunned their landlord Charter Oaks Communities, which is the city’s housing authority, did not offer them a different place to stay.
“I don’t want no birdbath,” said Taylor, a mother of three daughters who are all without a shower this week. “I’m a grown woman. That’s what we do with babies, and I got a whole week.”
Charter Oak is renovating all the full bathrooms in Taylor’s dozen-unit apartment complex, and has done the same work with few complaints in two other complexes, said Executive Director Natalie Coard.
The new bathrooms are undeniably an upgrade, but the short notice, coupled with no effort to house residents elsewhere during renovations, has residents questioning why efforts to accommodate them weren’t made.
Coard said the renovations are being done according to protocol.
“Typically the contractors notify them 48 hours before,” she said. “It’s very inconvenient, but unfortunately we don’t have other vacant units to put them in.”
The work, including using port-a-potties as replacement toilets during workdays, was cleared by the city Health Department, Coard said.
Charter Oak does find alternative housing for residents when renovations are slated to take longer amounts of time, Coard said, but three days without a shower and a week of days without a toilet doesn’t cross that threshold.
Charter Oaks has done the same renovations in two other complexes, she added.
Kindrea Walston, who shares a one-bathroom apartment with her elderly parents next to Taylor’s unit, said she couldn’t believe the renovations are up to code.
The Walstons were the first to see the renovations, with other units such as Taylor’s taken up the following week.
Kindrea’s 73-year-old mother, Esther, was recently released from Stamford Hospital after a lengthy stay for respiratory issues. Then, for a week, dust coated the floors of their home while the bathroom wall insulation was exposed next to Esther’s bedroom, Kindrea said.
And Esther — who uses a walker — was told to use the port-a-potty outside during the day, she said.
In a letter from Stamford Hospital, Esther’s doctor wrote the “patient must remain in a dust free, mold free, climate controlled environment” and said she shouldn’t remain in the home during the renovations.
Kindrea said Charter Oak offered to “move” her mother to another complex after several days of work had been complete, but the option sounded permanent — not for the duration of the renovation.
Charter Oak did not respond to a follow-up call seeking comment on Esther’s hospital note and move claim.
“It’s just been an ordeal,” Kindrea said. “It’s a construction zone and they expected us to come out in the cold and use the port-a-potties.”
