Some elderly residents of Chelsea Towers, a high-rise apartment complex in El Paso built for seniors and people with disabilities, say they have been living without hot water and getting no help from either building management or the local housing authority. The residents told reporters they feel stuck, with nowhere else to turn as the problem drags on.
The complex sits at 600 Chelsea Street and, according to KVIA ABC 7, residents say they have not received help from management or the local housing authority. The station reported that it reached out to the local housing authority for comment but, as of publication, had not received a response. Chelsea Towers offers studio and one-bedroom units primarily designed for elderly residents and individuals with disabilities, according to Affordable Housing Online.
The building participates in the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance program along with the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, both of which cap qualified residents' rent at 30 percent of their adjusted income, per the same account. Property records list ownership under EP Housing Operations and Management Enterprises PFC, an entity tied to El Paso's public housing framework, with day-to-day site operations handled by Envolve Communities.
What Texas Law Requires of Landlords
Texas Property Code Section 92.052 legally requires landlords to supply and maintain, in good working condition, a device capable of delivering hot water at a minimum of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, according to FindLaw. State lawmakers reinforced that obligation through Senate Bill 1802, which strengthened the statutory framework around landlord repair duties tied to that same 120-degree threshold, as reported by Texas Policy Research.
Under Texas Property Code Section 92.056, tenants who are current on rent and who provide proper written notice about unaddressed hot water or safety problems may pursue judicial remedies or lease termination — though state law explicitly bars tenants from withholding rent payments as leverage. That distinction matters for residents at Chelsea Towers, who cannot legally stop paying rent even if the hot water problem persists, and who face a separate obstacle if they wanted to simply move: key public housing and Section 8 waitlists managed by Housing Opportunity Management Enterprises, the agency formerly known as the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, have remained closed to new applicants since mid-2024 because of high regional demand for subsidized housing.
Federal Rules Treat Hot Water as a Safety Issue
Because Chelsea Towers receives federal rental assistance, it also falls under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate, which classifies an inoperable hot water system or water heater failure in HUD-assisted housing as a health and safety deficiency requiring prompt remediation, according to The Inspection Group. HOME itself administers more than 6,000 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers across the El Paso metro area, underscoring how much of the region's affordable housing stock runs through the same overburdened agency that residents say has not responded to their concerns.
El Paso residents who believe a landlord is violating habitability codes can also file complaints through the city's Code Enforcement Department, which handles residential maintenance issues through its 311 intake system, according to the City of El Paso. It remains unclear whether any Chelsea Towers residents have filed a formal 311 complaint over the hot water outage, or how EP Housing Operations and Management Enterprises PFC and Envolve Communities are coordinating on repairs. The duration and root cause of the outage have also not been publicly detailed.
For now, the residents' account, relayed to KVIA ABC 7, is that they have been left without a working hot water system and without answers from the people responsible for fixing it — a situation that, under both state and federal housing rules, is not supposed to persist unaddressed.
