Air conditioning restored to 1 of 4 buildings in Park Forest, Illinois, complex after weeks

CBS News

24-06-2025

Some residents of the south Chicago suburb of Park Forest finally had some relief Tuesday after having had no air conditioning for weeks.
Four buildings in the Autumn Ridge apartment complex have been without AC, but just Tuesday afternoon, it was fixed in one of the buildings.
Park Forest Mayor Joseph Woods said as of Tuesday afternoon, the village still had not heard from the property owners at the Autumn Ridge Apartments complex. But during CBS News Chicago's interview with the mayor, he was made aware that onsite property management was fixing the air conditioning at one of the buildings.
It is one of four buildings that have been without AC all this time. The other three still don't have it.
"I have to be a little candid," said Mayor Woods. "We've heard some things, we've been given promises before — and some of those necessarily didn't come through."
Mayor Woods said he is optimistically cautious all four buildings at Autumn Ridge will have working AC by the end of the week. But he said the property management have made promises in the past that they didn't keep.
Mayor Woods said last summer, the property management left the heat on.
"One of the things they were saying: 'Well look, this is only going to be a heatwave for two or three days. Now if we turn off the heat and it gets cold next week, we can't turn it back on,'" Woods said. "That was one of the answers we had gotten, and that the residents had gotten."
On Thursday of last week, CBS Chicago first reported that residents of Autum Ridge couldn't catch a breeze. This week amid the heat wave, they were still dealing with the sweltering heat inside their apartment units.
Carmel Davis is among those who finally has air conditioning flowing through her home on Tuesday. While her building was the first to get fixed, she said it shouldn't have gotten to this point.
"I'm disgusted," Davis said. "I feel like this a bandage coverup for some things that we're experiencing here all together."
But Roshaunda Curtis lives in one of the buildings where the AC still doesn't work.
"It's like going into a sauna that hasn't fully baked, but it's well on its way," said Curtis.
CBS News Chicago visited Curtis and her family Monday, when her thermostat said 86 degrees. On Tuesday, it was up to 87.
One fan was devoted to the Curtis family's 5-month-old baby, another to their dog.
"They've known about this issue well before the summer hit. They knew about it, and they waited until the news came. They waited until heat was sweltering to then finally start pushing to do things," Curtis said, "and again, I have to question, are you doing things because the village is fining you every day?"
Residents said the Crete Monee School District donated at least 13 AC units, which residents say they installed themselves.
"I'm kind of nervous on what would have happened if the news hadn't have got on this, because a lot of the information that we're hearing, we're starting to hear it, you know, through the news," Curtis said.
Mayor Woods said getting residents relief is the main priority for the village, but the village plans to hold the property managers accountable.
"On the code enforcement side, it would be easy enough to say we're going to do this, we're going after the property management company," Woods said. "But to do that without knowing how that necessarily affects the residents would be irresponsible, and that's something we don't want to do."
Mayor Woods said the residents of the buildings still without AC are still in need of water bottles and more AC units.
Woods also reminded residents there are two cooling centers open during regular business hours, but the Park Forest police station is open 24 hours a day in a cooling facility.