For more than a week, residents at The Griot apartment building in Milwaukee say their taps have run cold, with no hot water in sight. Since around Feb. 1, some tenants have been boiling big pans of water just to bathe, trying to stretch limited time, energy, and money while juggling winter heating bills. Many say a basic necessity has turned into one more preventable hardship at the start of February, according to TMJ4.
Tenants Say Management Went Quiet As Taps Went Cold
As reported by TMJ4, tenants say The Griot has been without hot water for more than a week, leaving some residents to haul pots and pans from stove to bathroom just to get clean. When the station visited, reporters saw a sign on the leasing office listing hours as Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
According to TMJ4, a leasing employee refused to open the office door when approached by the news crew. The station also reported that it made multiple phone and email attempts to reach the building’s management company but did not receive a response.
Who Owns And Manages The Property
The Griot is managed by The Alexander Company, a Madison-based developer and property manager whose website lists several Milwaukee projects. The firm’s portfolio includes supportive-housing and historic-adaptive-reuse work in the region, making it a familiar name in local development circles.
Tenants say that despite the company’s presence in the city, they have not been given a clear timeline for when the hot water will be restored. Residents describe growing frustration over what they see as a communication vacuum on top of an already stressful outage.
City Inspections Followed A Flurry Of Complaints
The Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services confirmed that an inspector was sent to The Griot to look into the hot-water problem and told TMJ4 the agency received three complaints related to the building in the past week. Tenants, including Isis Chaney, who previously raised security concerns about the building in October 2025, told the station they have been boiling water since Feb. 1 to wash and bathe.
Residents say they are now counting on the city’s involvement to push for a faster repair timeline or at least some form of temporary relief while the issue is sorted out.
What Residents Say Needs To Happen Next
Tenants at The Griot say they want straightforward answers and a plan. That includes a firm repair timeline, stopgap measures such as portable hot-water stations or hotel vouchers, and consistent updates from property management instead of silence.
Advocates point out that long-lasting outages hit older adults, children, and people with medical needs the hardest, and they are urging city officials and management to prioritize both the repairs and proactive outreach to residents.
We will update this story if The Alexander Company or city officials provide additional details.
