At least 50 public housing tenants are hoping the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority will be able to fully restore their heat ahead of the bitter cold set to slam Richmond this week.

The RRHA, buoyed by the end of the government shutdown that threatened its financial well-being, reported major progress in restoring heat to tenants.

RRHA was able to restore heat in 24 apartments by Jan. 25 after completing boiler repairs, leaving only two units where shivering tenants have had to make do with space heaters to keep warm in recent weeks.

The housing authority also restored heat to 11 other units where only portions of the interior were being warmed because of broken radiators.

RRHA reported that, as of last Friday, it still needed to fix problems in 49 other units that have reported partial heating outages and two without any heat.

The situation is improved from mid-December when RRHA reported that 132 families were experiencing heating problems, including 83 that reported the heat completely out in their units and 49 who only had partial heat.

The number has fluctuated as cold weather settled in, with the number of families reporting partial heat rising to 79 before beginning to drop this month.

Among those reporting problems is Tina Shaw, who has had repeated problems with getting adequate heat in her Creighton Court apartment.

In December, she noted that RRHA had made repairs, but within weeks, she discovered the radiator repairs on the first floor had failed.

“I’ve got heat in the second-floor bedrooms,” she said. But the first floor remains frigid, she said, unless she runs the dryer. She said a second-floor bathroom also has no heat, but she has been able to warm it with a space heater.

She said she repeatedly has reported the outage since early January, but is still waiting for a response.

“I’m hoping they’ll get around to me at some point,” she said.