AUBURN – With a tank nearly full of heating oil and a stocked kitchen cupboard, Jenn Ward figured back in December that her family could make it through the next month.

Her landlord had refused to refill the heating oil tank, and she knew her family would have to find a new place to live. But it was just before Christmas, so the family put the last of their money into the oil tank.

“All we needed to do was make things last long enough to save up some more money and get a new apartment,” she said.

That plan burst Saturday afternoon, along with the water pipes in three of their Second Street building’s vacant units. The water damaged the floors and ceilings and caused an electrical hazard in the Wards’ apartment.

Now, Jenn, husband Thomas and their three children find themselves without a home – and no prospects for finding a new one soon.

It’s not an isolated case this winter, according to city officials. Fire Prevention Officer Gary Simard said the city has had 25 instances in the past two months of landlords walking away from their properties because they couldn’t or wouldn’t pay high heating oil costs.

“In some cases, they’ve just walked away and left their tenants to fend for themselves,” Simard said. “In others, they’ve brought in space heaters for their tenants.”

But that’s led to other problems: carbon monoxide buildup, fire hazards where landlords have brought in gas-fired space heaters and stressed electrical systems where they’ve plugged in electrical heaters.

“Right now, it’s a serious problem in the city,” he said. “I’ve never seen it this bad.”

Blame the high cost of No. 2 heating oil, Simard and other officials say. Average prices, at $3.35 per gallon, are about $1 higher than at the same time last year.

“It’s hard on everyone who uses oil, but it seems to be compounded for apartment buildings,” said Dot Meagher, Auburn’s director of health and social services. Many of the landlords she’s talked with are working-class people themselves who want to heat their properties, but can’t afford the cost.

“They can’t do it financially,” she said. “I had one landlord break down in tears to me, asking what they could do.”

Calls unanswered

Some landlords are trying to evict tenants who have stopped paying their rent or are causing other problems, Meagher said. But Ward insists that’s not her story. She stopped paying rent on her 110 Second St. apartment in November, after the oil tank ran dry the first time.

She put oil in the tank, paying about $1,000 – $300 more than her monthly rent. Phone calls and letters to her Portland landlord, Justin S. Keck, have gone unanswered.

“I figured we’d call it even,” Ward said. The building’s three other long-term tenants moved out in October, leaving Ward and her family alone. Ward said she thinks Keck is trying to sell the building.

“But nobody has been able to get in touch with him to find anything out,” she said.

The Sun Journal also was unable to contact Keck.

“It’s a beautiful building, in a nice neighborhood,” Ward said. “I’d like to stay here, if I can.”

That can’t happen unless the water damage is repaired. In the meantime, the family is staying with Ward’s sister.

“I can’t find a new place because I don’t have the security deposit, and we make too much money to get any help,” Jenn Ward said. “This shouldn’t happen to us. We’re good people. We work, we pay our bills on time.”