RICHMOND, Va. -- Devona Spencer has lived in The Flats at Ginter Park for years, but she’s gone without hot water for weeks.
On Wednesday she is busy making smoked turkey and cabbage.
She says the kitchen is her happy place and that cooking is how she shows her love
“I take half and keep it at home and the other half I go give out to someone who may be hungry,” she said.
She remembers a time when meals were scarce and alley ways on Brookland Parkway were home.
“It was due to my addiction when I was in the street hooked on drugs,” she said.
Today Spencer has been clean and had a roof over her head for 12 years but she’s fighting a new battle.
“This is the hot water and as you can see it`s not coming on, this is the cold, and that`s all I`m getting, since Oct. 17,” she said.
Spencer says for the last six months her hot water has worked sparingly and for the last 30 days, it has not worked at all.
When she showed us the problem today, she turned the faucet all the way on but only cold water barely trickled out.
Then in her bathroom, mold spots the ceiling from plumbing issues.
“This is the worst I’ve ever lived, on the street I’ve been in better places than this,” she said.
Spencer said she has called management for months - to get the issues resolved.
“I don’t know what else to do, some days I’ve sat in here and just cried.”
Employees at the leasing office said that they do not talk to media.
CBS 6 also emailed the parent company to ask what the problem was with the hot water, and what is being done to resolve it. The management company has not responded.
Spencer says although she doesn't know if she will have hot water this winter, she`s focusing on helping others in the meantime.
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