Susan Helppie lives in east Toledo and has a broken furnace she’s been trying to get fixed.
TOLEDO, Ohio — A 70-year-old woman has been living in east Toledo without heat for months after flooding broke her furnace, leaving her to endure freezing temperatures inside her own home.
“My basement flooded with five feet of water,” Susan Helppie said. “It ruined my furnace — it was only two years old — and my hot water heater.”
“This cold is just too much. 30-degree weather out there,” she added.
Living on social security, Helppie couldn’t afford to repair the furnace on her own.
So, she turned to NeighborWorks, a local nonprofit that offers free weatherization services to low-income residents of Lucas County. Initially, she said her pleas for help seemed to go unanswered.
“September came and I didn’t hear from them,” she said. “I felt like I was getting the runaround every time I called. They didn’t have any answers or a timeframe for when somebody would help me with my furnace, so I’d have heat before winter.”
As temperatures dropped, Helppie relied on space heaters NeighborWorks did provide. So, her next-door neighbor stepped in.
“They saw that I was shivering and said, ‘You can’t live like this,’” Helppie said.
WTOL 11 contacted the city and NeighborWorks about Helppie’s situation on Friday and later that day, a NeighborWorks representative visited help home to assess the furnace and determine what repairs were needed.
While progress is finally underway, Helppie continues to rely on space heaters to stay warm.
Her advice for others facing similar struggles is to “keep calling, like every day. They’ll get tired of hearing from you.”
For those in need of heating assistance, here are some resources:
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