Wedgewood Apartments lack AC – again
With the D.C. region experiencing a “dangerous heat wave,” tenants at the Wedgewood Apartments in Annandale are suffering without air conditioning.
“The conditions inside the apartments have become unbearable,” says Aisha of McWhorter Place. “This is affecting our health, comfort, and ability to safely remain in our home.”
“I have already contacted the leasing office several times, but unfortunately, I was told that there is nothing they can do and that we should simply manage on our own. This response is unacceptable given the dangerous temperatures,” Aisha said. “They never tell us when it will be fixed.”
“Yesterday, I cried. I had laundry, I had to cook, and when you cook, the house is like a stove itself,” she said, while shopping at Costco to spend her own money on a portable air conditioner.
The whole complex is affected, but somehow, the AC in the management office is working, she noted. Meanwhile, she and her three young children have been sitting in her car with the engine running and the AC on.
Related story: Wedgewood tenants suffer without AC
The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which owns the Wedgewood, is aware of the problem, said Marketing and Outreach Manager Allyson Pearce. “While air conditioning is operational, it is not functioning at 100% across the entire property.”
“The property manager, Pratum, is working to address it,” Pearce said. “Wedgewood residents who need immediate access to a cooled location are encouraged to visit one of the Fairfax County cooling centers. Residents should contact the property manager with any concerns. More information will be made available as this situation is addressed.”
Neither the management at the Wedgewood nor Pratum’s main office in Maryland responded to our calls or emails.
It’s hotter inside his Wedgewood apartment than it is outside, said Mohammed. It’s too hot to sleep or cook, so he’s taken his family to friends’ and relatives’ homes to cool off. In addition to the lack of air conditioning, the Wedgewood swimming pool has been closed for the last few days, he said.
When he complained to management, he said they laughed at him.
A Wedgewood tenant on McWhorter Place who goes by F.A., who spoke to us in his parked car with the AC on, said the manager “is a really good person,” but the other staff “are very rude.”
Related story: Wedgewood tenants lack heat and hot water
Another Wedgewood tenant, who declined to give his name, said he and his wife and their three children are all staying in the same room in his third-floor apartment, where there is an air cooler. However, it doesn’t do a good enough job. The heat is exacerbating his asthma, and he had to take his 3-year-old daughter to the doctor with a heat rash.
When he went to the leasing office, a staff member told him, “There’s only so much I can do.” When he called again, she hung up on him.
Noting that the heating system broke down during the extreme cold weather this winter, and he had no hot water for three or four months, he asked management for a break on the rent, which is $1,790 a month. “They said we don’t do that.”
The Wedgewood management office sent the following message to tenants, which one resident called ridiculous since the AC isn’t working at all:
This same situation has been happening for at least 7 years now. It’s ridiculous and Fairfax County should be ashamed of themselves being one of the richest counties in Virginia.
For some of us, this situation has been going on for far, far longer than seven years. I simply don’t have air-conditioning that’s anywhere close to being adequate, and I haven’t for many, many years.
Pratum Companies has been extremely unresponsive, as has the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, as well as many other offices in Fairfax County. When you call the management office here at the complex, or go over in person, to ask about the problem, you get a bunch of double talk, or you simply hear that it’s not their fault. And the temperature in their office is as cool as ice, as they’re on a different chiller system. The turnover in staff in recent years has been extremely high, and certain staff members have been extremely curt, and even downright rude and nasty. Currently, Wedgewood doesn’t even have a resident manager, and the people at the front desk are temps.
We also often have a big problem in the laundry room in my building, with flooding occurring on a regular basis, and the room not being cleaned up in a timely fashion.
The Wedgewood Apartment complex was one of the very best groups of apartments in Northern Virginia for many, many years. We have large, well-designed, beautiful apartments, with very large balconies or patios. We had great people in the office, excellent maintenance, highly functioning air-conditioning, and, at least for many of us, fine parking. We also had grounds that were maintained beautifully. And all of this was, and still is, in a great location. Things started going to hell in a handbasket after the original developers put us up for sale, and the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority bought us.
But this lack of decent air-conditioning in this exceedingly high heat and humidity is not just some kind of temporary inconvenience. It’s a very severe, and, in some cases, perhaps even life-threatening, problem. And it’s totally unacceptable.
Not providing AC, during Heat this high should be a criminal offense.
Shame on Pratum for allowing this to happen, and shame on Fairfax County for not taking action, despite knowing (for a fact) that the AC/heat systems in Wedgewood are in poor condition
I completely agree, Ben, and I’ll add that the property management company should be fired. Those poor people. I’ve been through hot weather with no a/c and it is not fun.
No conditioned space during the temperatures of extreme winter or summer is a huge health and safety problem. Unfortunately, this is a problem of years of governmental neglect (both political parties at federal, state, and local level). Rental rate controlled tends to be far below 30-50% below market. Because they are govt owned, there isn’t a local tax property contributor (which impacts schools funding in a large way). The operation and maintenance costs of the facilities is at market rate – whether that is plumbing work, HVAC, repaving the private road and parking lot, clearing the snow and ice. I would say luckily, that this is not NYC which has some rate control structures that apartments have rents locked in from 30-40 years ago (like a grandparent had the apartment, the grandchild lives there, the grandparent dies, the grandchild keeps the rent price with a inflation, but that hasn’t reflected the everything else, so the couple hundred dollar rent has indexed up, but is still 1/3 of a similar new rent control lease and 1/8 of market).
To fix this – this needs Federal, State, and Local change. The county doesn’t publish the percent of renters who are funded by what programs (Section 8 being the most common federal housing subsidy, with social security disability and other programs as well as military housing subsidies the other common ones). There are state and some local programs. And some renters could qualify for very little subsidies.
That said, the rent – wherever it comes from, is NOT enough to do the job of maintaining. You can’t have market rate maintenance costs and the funding be far below that. You hear about similar maintenance problems with military base housing.
Everyone would recognize almost all govt projects as paid upfront, but the operations and maintenance tail is not programmed in perpetuity with real inflationary controls as the classic fun legislative project (folks get a photo of congressman with a shovel digging ground at the start of a project, then a few years later, a ribbon cutting) . These programs all fit the “Kick the can down the road” mentality – the biggest of which is what Social Security program has (with it’s impending emptying out of SS fund piggy bank in less than a decade and have to cut benefits 25-35% (per Congressional Budget Office)).
Almost no one really(politicians) wants to fix this – as it means lots (and lots of higher taxes) on the middle class workers. The lowest 1/3 pay no taxes, the super-rich pay the lowest tax rates due to tax loopholes (usually under 10%), the middle class pay it most of it. The politicians can’t keep squeezing the middle class. They’re paid off not to squeeze the rich. And so, you can’t find money to fix public services.
To be fair – maybe 1-2% of the problem resides within FFX housing authority for poor accountability. But small double digit is from state regulation and funding. The state doles out funds rural programs from the “rich” populous tax base (Richmond, Norfolk, NoVa) and federal allocations. So while 70% of the population is in those three areas, nowhere near that percentage of state tax and federal tax funding goes to the programs in those areas (this is the common break between equity and equality – that there is no way to make everyone happy!) The vast majority of the problem (probably 80+%) is with federal regulation and underfunding.
I don’t think even if the Fairfax Housing Authority did all its functions (including their contract company) perfectly, would have ANY impact to this particular issue. I doubt they have the funding to do so, nor is it programmed anywhere in a multiyear budget at the federal and state level.
Yes , incredibly sad and extremely dangerous for these people. The county needs to have some kind of accommodations in place especially in these dangerous temps . Please bring in some ac trailers, buses that these people can get a break . Can you imagine having to be in that in this heat trying to work jobs take care of children , and yes if there is any care at all ,what about the children? ????Please get these people some kind of relief quickly.
Wedgewood residents received two messages from management yesterday. One says: “The chillers are currently operating and providing cool air. Our contractor has identified a pump that needs to be replaced. The necessary parts have been ordered and are expected to be installed by July 15th.… We appreciated your patience while our contractors complete this repair and work to restore the system to full cooling capacity.”
The other message, from Mona Miller, the director of operations at the Pratum Cos., says “the parts are expected to be installed next week.”
I want to share my experience living at Wedgewood for three years. Every summer, the air conditioning would fail for at least a month, and management did nothing to assist tenants. We were forced to buy our own window units to stay cool.
Additionally, there was a man squatting in an abandoned room below our apartment. Despite multiple complaints to management and the police about his presence—especially given that he had a no trespassing order against him for molesting two children—nothing was done.
One night, he broke into my apartment through a window that I had to use a unit in because of the lack of AC. He attempted to steal my three-year-old daughter. After this terrifying incident, the apartment complex only responded by screwing our windows shut, leaving us without an escape route in case of emergencies.
It took over a month to get moved out after the break-in, and instead of addressing our safety concerns, they raised our rent. The management’s lack of action in a situation that endangered my family is unacceptable. This property should be condemned, and those running it should be held accountable for their negligence.
Were it not for Sharon Bulova, then chair of the FxCoBoS, stepping in and convincing the Board to purchase these apartments for “teachers. fire fighters and emergency personnel” (Ha Ha) these apartments would have been renovated by a private firm, rented at market rate, and providing more dollars to the tax coffer.
No Ac all day today July 3 2026 went in the office they don’t care at all
I wonder if the newly passed laws that allows renters to withhold rent for lack of repairs will help or hurt this situation?
Among the new laws now in effect, the more useful one is probably the law that allows local governments to sue landlords for failure to maintain habitability.
This article and these comments could be about most any public housing project that’s ever existed. But the problem isn’t necessarily about incompetence. It’s just the nature of maintaining & repairing stuff. You fix things AFTER they break. Sure they should be maintained and checked periodically but that’s still no guarantee against breakdown.
Since 1987 I’ve replaced my home HVAC system three times. (That’s about standard life expectancy they tell me.) Each time failure was unexpected of course and twice in sweltering heat.
Two years ago replacement cost me over $12000. Why would I spend that kind of money to replace something that works?
For nearly 40 years I even had a service contract with two checkups per year. Still, surprise failures. Who do I sue?
So, sorry for your troubles and sorry building management isn’t empathetic and responsive, but that’s life. And, I have to say, I’m paying all the taxes I’m willing to pay.
Where is Andres Jimenez?
Where is Andres Jimenez indeed! He missed several July 4th celebrations in Annandale this weekend that Penny Gross always frequented. He simply doesn’t not care and is not fulfilling his obligations to the community