La Porte woman loses job and home after reporting mold in apartment

LA PORTE COUNTY, Ind. -- A local woman is speaking out after losing her home and job in the same day, in what she says is retaliation.

She worked as an Assistant Property Manager at Maple Tree Apartments in La Porte. It's also where she lives, but for only seven more days.

"These are all my clothes and my son's clothes that are damaged, full of mold," shows Jamaia Glass, a resident at Maple Tree Apartments.

Glass says her apartment is unlivable.

"As I started clearing out my closet, I seen that there was mold everywhere, all over my stuff," Glass says. "There's mold here, there's mold stains on the carpet. Everywhere."

It all started this past Wednesday when Glass noticed a patch of her carpet was wet.

"We were walking in it and it sounded like a puddle," Glass describes.

She called in the problem to maintenance at Maple Tree Apartments, but because she was the Assistant Property Manager there, she could tell exactly what the problem was: a leak from a condensation line.

She believes maintenance did a temporary fix because it only got worse by Friday.

"It was more than likely it was band aided," believes Glass.

That's when she decided it was time to call code enforcement, and they discovered mold and mildew growing in her closet.

Property management then agreed to perform a water extraction on Monday, but instead she was met with the unexpected.

"I received a phone call stating that I had been terminated," Glass explains. "I have seven days to leave my apartment, otherwise if I do not vacate, they will file an eviction on me."

Now Jamaia and her three-year-old son have to up and move.

"I don't want to start crying right now, but that's my baby and that's all I think about," Glass says. "It's not likely that I'll find somewhere stable for me and my son and I to go in seven days."

Glass says her story is just scratching the surface.

As assistant property manager, she says she saw work orders go unresolved and residents being forced to go without air conditioning.

Like her next-door neighbor Tiffanie Green, who has been without A.C. since August.

"I ended up having to buy a window A.C. unit because it's just been so hot," says Green. "I have kids, so we all just kind of congregate in the living room."

Glass says it comes down to tenant's rights and holding management companies accountable.

"Me speaking out and speaking up for my residents, I have lost my job, and I now have nowhere to go in seven days," says Glass. "Everybody has the right to live fairly, everybody deserves to live in a livable apartment. It doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, black, white, orange, or yellow."

Glass tells ABC57 she wants to hire a lawyer and fight this in court once she finds a new place to live.

ABC57 sent an inquiry to Kittle Property Group who oversees Maple Tree Apartments about ongoing maintenance issues and have not received a response yet.