ATHENS, Ohio — Tenants at Beasley Mill, an income-assisted housing complex for seniors over 62, remain without air conditioning or hot water amid recent high local temperatures. The problem began late last month after a breakdown of the apartments’ HVAC system.
Jennifer Walters, the president and C.E.O. of Fairfield Homes, which owns the 37-unit affordable housing project on West Union Street, told the Independent that an “unanticipated major failure” of two holding tanks on Aug. 23 caused the boiler and chiller system to crash. She said orders have been made to replace faulty parts, but it is unclear when normal water and AC service may be restored.
“The soonest we anticipate being able to resume normal operation is mid-September,” wrote Walters in an email. “Currently, residents have intermittent warm water and box fans for cooling as we work to repair the system.”
But Kenneth MacKillop, a 63-year-old resident who lives on the second floor with two cats and a dog, told the Independent there has been no warm water for weeks.
“Not in the wee hours of the morning or any time,” MacKillop said.
Last Friday afternoon, Sept. 4, MacKillop said the temperature in his apartment was 88 degrees, even with two fans blowing. His unit reached 90 degrees last week for two or three days, he said. By Tuesday morning, Sept. 8, his thermostat read 83 degrees, and he remained without warm water.
Calling the situation “heinous” and “horrible,” MacKillop noted that apartments on the floors above him were even hotter, and he said that explanations he received about the cause of the problem were vague.
“Management is tight lipped,” he said.
In a letter to tenants Aug. 27, Fairfield Homes acknowledged that repairs could take weeks and wrote that it was seeking ways to expedite the process. It noted contacting community organizations and the American Red Cross to suggest resources for residents, but Fairfield Homes declined to move tenants still at the complex.
“Because water service remains available to the affected apartments, we will not be providing temporary or alternative housing during the repair period,” reads a note to residents.
Fairfield Homes wrote that it recognizes access to cold water “does not eliminate the difficulty of being without hot water.”
Beasley Mill previously made headlines in August 2025, when a resident barricaded himself in his apartment and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following an hours-long police standoff. Law enforcement responded to the building after the resident was suspected to have shot a woman in Athens.
Thirty tenants were displaced from Beasley Mill after a fire broke out at the apartment complex in April 2024. The fire originated from an outlet in MacKillop’s previous unit, the Athens Fire Department report found.
