Residents detail continued issues at Westcott Apartments
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Tuesday, ABC57 told you about a situation at Westcott Apartments in South Bend, where residents were having to use outdoor Port-A-Potties in the apartment parking lot due to a water shut off.
That situation has reportedly been solved, and the water is back on, but Wednesday, residents are once again sounding off about issues that they say have fallen on deaf ears for quite some time.
ABC57 tried to speak to someone at the South Bend Housing Authority Wednesday, but soon after walking in, our reporter was asked to leave the building and was told they would have no comment on this matter; but tenants still have plenty to say. They say they're frustrated by a lack of communication about major projects in the building.
Wednesday, people living at the Westcott Apartments in South Bend say their water is back on, and they no longer have to use parking lot Port-A-Potties.
This comes after people living here showed ABC57 inside the building, where there were a lot of exposed pipes and torn up floors.
"It would be really helpful for us as tenants, if we had more transparency, about issues that would potentially bring physical harm to us tenants, that are going on with the building," said tenant Gary May.
Gary May is one of the frustrated residents living here.
"Obviously, the piping and the leaking of the pipes and stuff like that has been an ongoing issue for quite some time, and it seems to me like simply duct taping the leaks is not really a positive solution that's going to correct the problem," said May.
Shortly after ABC57 brought our cameras inside Tuesday, a tenant told ABC57 that building management informed residents that guests were not allowed on the property.
But they lifted the policy just hours later.
May claims they weren't given two weeks' notice about the water shut off, something the housing authority disputes.
"They typed this letter out on July second, and then us tenants got it stuffed into our doors, and three days after it got stuffed in the doors, is when they decided to put the porta potties up there and I googled how much hotter it would be on an 85-degree day inside a port a potty and astonishingly, upwards of 130 degrees in there," said May.
During ABC57's time at Westcott, several tenants who all want to remain anonymous, corroborated May's claims, as well as adding their own complaints.
"It would be nice if us tenants, every other month, could have some kind of like group meeting that an employee can oversee, and jot down tenant's concerns, and stuff like that that needs to be addressed, and dealt with, maybe work orders that are taking too long to get done or what not, or other ideas beneficial to us as collectively as tenants, get more tenant input," said May.
The CEO and executive director of the South Bend Housing Authority told ABC57 Tuesday that residents ignored letters informing them of the water project in advance.