CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – A family living in a Vista View townhouse in Charleston says management are threatening to remove a window air conditioning unit brought to them by CPS, and threatening to evict them if it’s reinstalled.

The mother living there says their central air has been broken since last year, and Vista View maintenance failed to repair it on three separate tries.

According to Ivy Turley, a Child Protective Services worker watched 13 News’ story last Friday of showing her apartment’s broken central air, and installed a window unit in her apartment on Saturday to help. The CPS worker brought it out of concern for Turley, who cares for several young children in the townhouse, including infants. She says some of her children have vomited from the extreme heat in the past.

On Monday, Vista View management delivered a notice to Turley’s townhouse demanding the window unit be removed before Thursday, otherwise maintenance workers will come to remove it themselves, and charge the family a labor fee. They say if a window unit is reinstalled afterwards, that would be grounds for eviction.

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Turley says on a good day, she can use a box fan to cool the apartment down to as low as 75 degrees. But she tells 13 News her apartment can climb to as high as 90 degrees.

While Turley’s lease prohibits a window unit, many units in the Vista View neighborhood have ones of their own. When 13 News called Vista View to ask if residents have differing lease guidelines, they said they have no comment at this time.

Patrick Krason is a political analyst with Krason and Wool Political Strategy Group, LLC, and has a friend who lives in a Vista View apartment. He says this is no way to treat neighbors in West Virginia, and that Vista View is fostering inhumane living conditions.

“We’re supposedly a first-world country,” Krason said. “We live in a great state here in West Virginia, we take care of our people. And for some reason, these people are falling thru the cracks, and it’s just not right.”

Vista View Apartments are managed by Dennis Vishnevskiy with Ten South Management based just outside of Chicago. 13 News reached out to them for comment, but the office said Vishnevskiy is out of the office this week.

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