Family of 8 gets new HVAC system with help from AHIP, Beck Cohen

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A Charlottesville family of eight has a brand new heating system after going weeks without one. This is all thanks to the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP) and Beck Cohen.

“It means a lot, I don’t know how to thank them,” Taj Amiri, father of six said. As if he and his wife did not already have their hands full, they have been living without heat for weeks thanks to a broken heat pump.

“It’s hard to live without heat in the winter but fortunately they have something called emergency heat which is better than nothing,” Amiri said. “I didn’t know what to do but then one of my friends told me about AHIP.”

AHIP and Beck Cohen decided to step in. “This is a huge deal,” AHIP Director of Programs said. “The system they’ve been using, it’s been running in emergency heat mode and that’s very expensive.”

Beck Cohen HVAC Manager Rob Buonomo says it was a no-brainer when he heard the Amiri family had six kids ages 2 to 19.

“It’s hard enough, distance learning is hard enough as it is,” Buonomo said. “We could imagine kids being cold with distance learning at the same time so when AHIP approached us, we said ‘absolutely we will we will make a donation and we’ll take care of this.”

Beck Cohen’s team spent Monday morning installing a brand new heating system for the Amiri family. Without it, winter weather could have made for a dangerous circumstance.

“Those are conditions that for the very young children and the elderly people in our community, they can be life-threatening,” Demchak said. “Making sure that people are staying safe staying warm staying cool is keeping them alive.”

It’s all a part of AHIP’s emergency heat campaign.

“It’s not just this family, it’s all the families in Charlottesville that need help,” Buonomo said. “We partnered with AHIP for three years now and we literally and figuratively want to help as many people as we can.”

AHIP is looking for donors to fund the campaign through the rest of the winter season so it can keep more families warm.

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