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AURORA, Colo. – As frigid temperatures set settle over the metro area, residents at an Aurora apartment complex say they are dealing with no heat and very little hot water.

“It feels like a polar bear’s toenail,” Rashaud Beauford told FOX31 of the cold weather.

He lives in the Courtyards at Buckley apartment complex near Buckley and Iliff with his family.

“We never really tried turning on the heat until the cold happened and [found] out it’s not working,” his brother Valentino Mack told FOX31. “We are running off of our ovens and local firewood we buy from 7-Eleven.”

In a different building in the complex, Lisa Boyer and her son are going through the same thing.

“We were running all four burners and the oven to try and keep warm,” she said.

The thermostat inside her apartment is set to 90 degrees but she still has to wear a coat inside.

“Oh, it’s been a nightmare,” she said. “If I want to stay warm I’ve got to stay up all night because you can’t run a space heater when you’re sleeping or [else] freeze. Those are our only options,” Boyer said.

For her building, the heat is only half of the problem. They are also without reliable hot water.

“If there was at least hot water, you could go take a shower or go sit in the bathtub to get warm,” she said.

Boyer says the problem with the hot water started about five days ago. She says at that time, no hot water came out of the faucet. As of Sunday afternoon, hot water was available for two to three minutes before turning cool again.

“They had set up a temporary small boiler that after a certain point shut off,” she said.

Boyer told FOX31 that workers had been out more than once during the last week to try and fix both the heat and the hot water issues.

“They were working hard, but it’s just unacceptable that many days and no communication,” she said.

The complex’s leasing office is closed on Sundays. FOX31 called the emergency maintenance line and left a message. A recording stated that a staff member would be alerted right away with the message. FOX31 did not receive a response.