MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- An entire apartment building in Milwaukee is being forced to temporarily close its doors, leaving dozens of people without a home tonight, Jan. 22.

The Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) says the people living in the apartment complex near N. 29th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. have been without water and heat for days in the extremely cold temperatures.

"Overnight it's very cold, you have to wrap up," said apartment resident, Robert James.

James says he's lived in this apartment building for two years now and says for the last almost four months he's had no heat.

"You know mostly everybody is buying a heater up in here, you know to stay warm," said James. "You know I see people in the hallway wrapped up in covers and blankets."

The DNS says two days ago they were informed the building had no heat and water, giving the owners 48 hours to fix it.

"We've communicated with them," said Jeremy McGovern, with the DNS. "We've given them 48 hours, but unfortunately those 48 hours expired and now we are dealing with a situation of entering much colder weather than we have right now and it's just going to get worse."

Thursday, the DNS shut the building down, causing more than 40 people to leave their homes, which were ruled unlivable.

"What it's generating is a life safety issue," said McGovern. "When we have weather like this and we are entering a weekend with worse weather of having residents with no heat and no water."

The DNS says the building had pipes burst and leak, even finding a car frozen in the garage.

The apartment complex is owned by Berrada Properties, who has had issues in the past, something Milwaukee Alderwoman Sharlen Moore says has not gone unnoticed.

"There's only so much legally that the City of Milwaukee can do," said Ald. Moore. "We are still looking at and fighting for other options to hold landlords like Berrada and anyone else accountable for making sure that if you are going to be in the business of housing our residents, we want you to be a responsible landlord. Period, point blank."

We reached out to Berradas Properties lawyer, Joe Goldberger about the current state of the building and he said he had no comment.

As for how long until residents can get back to their homes, Alderman Moore says it could be a while.

"I reached out to one of the staffers from Berrada," said Ald. Moore. "They said we ordered the part; I have no idea how long it's going to take, and so days could be weeks. We have no idea."

The DNS says the people that were displaced from this apartment are being placed in a hotel temporarily. The DNS says they are worried they could get more calls like this as colder temperatures are on the way.