Tenants in an NDG apartment building are sweating through high temperatures, saying their landlord removed the air conditioning without warning.

On Monday, with temperatures hovering in the low 30s, Avril Foster said she’s had no luck contacting the building on the corner of Sherbrooke and Prud’homme’s owner.

“If he’s not answering my letters and he’s not coming to see the damage in my apartment what way can I get his attention?” she said. “To shame him, that’s what I have to do.”

Tenants said the building has been under construction since December. Foster said she was given no reason why the A/C units were removed and replaced with cinderblocks in July.

“It’s blocked permanently,” she said. “My goal is to get this unblocked again because we’re all sitting with air conditioners in our apartment which we can’t use.”

Foster said that she was given no notice the A/C unit would be removed, a violation of tenants’ rights law. She’s since complained to the rental board, the mayor of NDG and even called the police.

“They measured the temperature at 45 degrees,” she said. “The police officer went away and he came back and said to me ‘I’ve made arrangements to take you to a shelter.’ Well, I’m not going to a shelter.”

Neighbour Hashem Saleki said he’s had a similar experience in his unit.

“Every time, we are hot,” he said. “It’s hot for us, a lot of humidity. They do nothing.”

Youssef El Khsabi, who lives on the other side of the building, said he’s bracing himself for when work begins on their apartments.

“They haven’t reached my side yet, but when they reach it I’m going to lose my balcony for two years,” he said.

An administrator who works with the building’s owner said she couldn’t explain why the units were removed but said Foster was offered another apartment to live in during the renovations but refused.

Foster said she had her reasons for refusing.

“It’s on the north side of the building next to the laneway where the garbage is parked weekly and recycling,” she said. “I’d hear all the noise and smell the garbage. They’re treating me like garbage so they may as well throw me in the garbage, right?”

Until the A/C is turned back on, Foster said she’s finding ways to cope.

“I live my days in McDonald’s, in libraries,” she said. “In fact I even fell asleep on a sofa in a furniture store because I was so exhausted because even if I’m not in an air conditioned apartment, I have to sleep.”