CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Building Inspectors and members of the Public Utilities Department were on the scene at a South Woodland Road apartment complex, where tenants reported no heat and no water service for several weeks.
Ward 4 Cleveland Councilwoman Deborah Gray also visited with tenants at the apartment building on Jan. 5 and told News 5 the apartment units are so bad it's not clear they're habitable.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
“They shouldn’t have been able to move in any all, I’ve been in the building, came in to visit Miss Angela and Miss Crystal earlier today," Gray said. “They shouldn’t even be in these units, the way the apartments are looking, it’s just deplorable."
Gray said it's disturbing ads on Facebook Marketplace for the apartment units look nothing like the picture posted online.
“From that false advertisement on Facebook Marketplace they thought the apartments looked the way it was shown, and these units are far from that," Gray said. “We just have to do better; they have to do better with these units. It’s not acceptable and they have to be held accountable for their actions and these actions are not accountable.”
Tenant Angela Fox was pleased the city has taken action after she said she paid more than $1,000 in rent in December and had to pay for 10 days in a hotel because of no water or heat in the building.
“It ended up being another $1,200 dollars, and the day after Christmas I said I have to come here, and then I come here and I couldn’t even go into the unit," Fox said. “I don’t even have keys to get in the front or back door, I can’t even have my mail or medicine sent here because there’s no mailboxes, there’s no smoke detectors.”
News 5 again spoke with apartment management, which is working for building owners located in New Mexico. Management said heating and water issues were primarily caused by high water pressure from a city water main, which blew out plumbing and the building boiler system. Management again pledged to have water and heating services restored early next week.
Councilwoman Gray confirmed the city is investigating allegations city water main pressure issues caused problems at the complex.
“Public utilities came out today to televise the sewer and the waterline to ensure the water pressure wasn’t coming from the street and if it was they are planning to take care of it," Gray said. "By you airing this on the news yesterday all the officials saw it on the news and responded."
Meanwhile, the office of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb issued the following statement in response to our News 5 investigation:
We just recently were made aware of this. Upon learning of this situation, our Building & Housing Department (B&H) immediately sent out inspectors to the site and talked to both residents and ownership today. We are looking into concerns expressed by both sides.
Ultimately, multiple complaints were entered into our system regarding concerns residents expressed about permitting, heating/HVAC, lack of water, and other issues. Inspectors found a violation regarding water issues and a violation notice will be issued to the owner. Further inspections will be forthcoming and, if warranted, potentially more violations will be issued. Ownership will be given time to remedy the issues, and it is our hope they will do so. However, should they not comply, they would then face prosecution.
It’s also important to underscore how important our Residents First Legislative Package which would give us significantly more tools in our toolbox to address issues just like this one. The package would allow us to issue a $200 fine per infraction for violations found by our Building and Housing inspectors, among various other important tools aimed at addressing nuisances across the City. We remain hopeful that this will make its way through City Council soon.
News 5 will continue to follow through on this developing story.
