Poe Homes, a public housing complex in West Baltimore, has been without water since Monday because of a water main break in the Poppleton neighborhood, officials confirmed Thursday.
Failed valves were to blame, said Department of Public Works spokesperson Jeff Raymond, who added a contractor was on-site making the repair Thursday.
The department is planning to extend a temporary bypass line to get water to the community while it pursues a permanent fix, he said, so water access is likely to be restored today.
“We had made a repair on it there earlier this week,” Raymond said. “But it wasn’t until after that initial repair was made that the extent of the damage to the valves there was realized.”
City Council President Brandon Scott said in a statement that Poe Homes residents and neighbors contacted him Thursday about their lack of running water.
“I immediately contacted DPW Bureau of Water and Wastewater asking them to expedite getting water access to citizens and address the root of the problem,” he wrote.
The city housing authority has been delivering gallon water jugs to its most at-risk families, including seniors and disabled individuals, said Ingrid Antonio, a housing authority spokesperson.
There’s also a water distribution center for all residents in the complex community center, Antonio said.
The nearly 300-unit complex, which was built around 1940, is adjacent to the former home of Edgar Allen Poe, now a museum dedicated to the famed writer.
Last year, the city’s housing authority received a $1.3 million federal grant to revitalize the neighborhood, with a renovation for Poe Homes at the center of the plan.
