'Unacceptable:' Mother with 3 young children left without heat for 5 days in Holly Springs apartment

A Holly Springs mother says it happened to her family. As of Tuesday night, she’s gone five days without heat inside her apartment at Maple Ridge Apartment Homes,

Jessica Chatman has stopped by the leasing office, called and emailed the property manager for answers after going days without a working heating system.

Chatman waited for repairs tonight, but maintenance crews didn’t meet expectations.

Space heaters and strollers crowd her apartment.

"We have it centralized in here. That way everyone can be in one room," she says.

Without a working heating system, Chatman worries most for her for small children – she’s the mother of 1-year-old twins and another son.

"I do have an autistic son. I have small babies, and it hurts, and I have to be their voice," she says.

Her heating system stopped working on Friday – the same day temperatures outside dipped into the low teens from the arctic blast.

Her system got as low as 53 degrees last night.

WRAL News wanted to get answers about the necessary repairs, but no one was available at the leasing office when we arrived. WRAL's Aaron Thomas emailed the assistant property manager and called one of the numbers left on the door.

No one answered the emergency line, so WRAL News left a message: "She says she's been without heat since Friday, Dec. 23 and was told she'd get repairs today. Wanted to get an ETA on if and when those repairs will be happening.”

WRAL also sat in on a phone call Chatman made to management. A rep told her maintenance crews were responding to an excessive amount of calls for other repairs and he was working in the order of each call.

Chatman says the wait to get working heat has gone on far too long.

"It's just unacceptable. Very unacceptable, and I'm sad about it," she says.

Chatman she’s been staying with family in the Raleigh area in the meantime so that she can keep her children warm at night.