Derris Ross grew up on the far-east side near 42nd Street. As a kid, he’d play in various neighborhoods nearby. They weren’t the safest areas, but that’s where his friends and family were; it was home. On Wednesday, Ross, president and founder of The Ross Foundation, made another trek through one of his old stomping grounds, Arborstone Apartments. These days, his visits are more labor than leisure. Ross, alongside partners like Eastern Star Church, held a community action day to help residents in need of food, resources and a way out of what he and others have described as deplorable living conditions.
Left to right: Raymond Tucker, Mark McClure
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In between greeting residents, he paused to point out the seemingly innumerable issues at the complex: apartments without door knobs, boarded-up and broken windows, sagging floors and inoperable laundry facilities.
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“I knew I had an obligation,” Ross said. Two weeks ago, he helped organize a water drive after being alerted by residents that their water had been cut off due to nonpayment by property owners to Citizens Energy. Ross and his team realized there was much more that still needed to be done. He said that immediately following news coverage of the water issue, nearly every resident received a notice from Connie West, the area’s property manager, that they were at risk of being evicted.
“They’ve been pocketing money and taking advantage of these tenants not being educated and having no other place to go,” said Ross.
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‘Someone’s gonna die here’
Joel Nagle, an attorney with Bose McKinney & Evans, first learned of the situation at Arborstone via social media. He happened to be working on a separate landlord-tenant case at the time and saw the distribution of eviction notices as a form of “retaliation.”
Nagle decided to accompany Ross to the apartments so he could see things for himself.
“I was shocked. The living conditions there were terrible,” Nagle said. “You’ve got a hundred-some-odd people there. Lots of kids and elderly. I’ve never seen anything like it … it’s bad … and I kept thinking, someone’s gonna die here.”
Chase Haller, an attorney with Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, agreed with Nagle’s assessment, calling the complex “truly deplorable.”
“A lot of these tenants are still paying rent because they don’t have anywhere else to go. It’s a real eye opener into the kind of low-income housing crisis that’s going on sort of right under our noses, that most people don’t bat an eye about,” Haller said.
Haller and his colleagues set up shop at Arborstone Wednesday to help residents figure out their legal options. He recently spoke with one of the tenants who’d received a notice that listed a case number, date and time for an eviction hearing.
“It confused her because at that time, she didn’t think she owed any rent. When she called the court they said they didn’t have a case number under that name,” he said.
“When I brought it to the (Lawrence Township Small Claims Court), they hadn’t seen a copy of it yet, and they passed it on to a judge. Right now I think IMPD is investigating it as a possible forgery.”
Nagle stated that to his knowledge, none of the residents are currently at risk of being evicted.
“We talked to the owners and the management company and said, ‘You know, you can’t kick these people out because they called the news outlets because the water was shut off because you failed to pay the water bill,’” he said.
In terms of renter’s rights, Nagle said that some things come down to a case-by-case basis.
He said the best course of action is not to withhold payment, but to attain and retain as much documentation as possible. “Number one, make sure everything is in writing. When you pay, get a receipt. When you make a complaint, get it in writing. … If they don’t do anything about it, if you feel like there’s no other option, talk to a legal clinic around town to review your options if you’re looking to abandon the property before your lease is up,” he said. “Technically, they could argue that if you don’t pay anything more, you’ve broke your lease, and we don’t want folks to get in more trouble.”
‘I’m just stuck’
Shaquel Allen moved into a two bedroom apartment in Arborstone last year. Today, the expectant mother and her two children have camped out in the living room, the only inhabitable spot in her home, due to a flood that ruined many of her belongings and caused mold to grow.
“I’m not doing good. Still stuck in this damn house,” she said during a phone interview with the Recorder.
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Allen said her repeated requests to the property manager to have maintenance issues addressed have been ignored. “If I mention about the ceiling or the bathroom, (West) doesn’t respond, but if I send a message about rent, she’ll reply,” said Allen.
“We haven’t had maintenance out here since June. They just started coming out when they made it on the news about the water,” she said.
Allen said though her lease has been up since June and she’s been approved for Section 8, she is not able to financially shoulder the costs of moving to a new place.
“I feel like I shouldn’t give her any money when I’m seven months (into a) high-risk (pregnancy) and handling mold. My ceiling is dripping, the tub is messed up because ceiling pieces are in it,” she said. “I have no way. … All I need is $900 to move, and I can get out of here. But until then I’m stuck on this couch with my kids, and pregnant.”
On Wednesday, Allen had refocused her energy, as several maintenance workers moved about outside, from building to building. She’d been told by management that the property had been sold to a new owner and would be changing its name. She’d also been promised a new, renovated unit.
“For now, I gotta stay here,” she said.
Felice Smith, who has been an Arborstone resident for three years, is ready to leave. “Definitely before it gets cold outside, because my furnace doesn’t work,” she said. In her apartment, a patch of carpet is deeply stained due to dripping water overhead. “Every time it rains, it does that,” said Smith.
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In the bathroom, she pulled up a large piece of vinyl flooring, revealing sharp pebbles of concrete and suspected mold underneath. Smith said she just tries to work around it the best she can and keeps her apartment up for her own health and well-being. As far as the recent appearance of maintenance workers, Smith seemed unimpressed. “They said they’re focusing on the grounds first, but what about the inside?”
Under new management
“I think the conditions of (the apartment complex grounds) are a two-way street. People need to respect where they live and take care of it,” said now-former property manager Connie West.
“I had maintenance every day out there,” she said. “Maintenance has been around since I’ve been out there. If we don’t have a work order or haven’t been advised of what needs to be repaired or fixed, we can’t do that.”
West noted that for the past year and a half, she had split her time among Arborstone and two other facilities, and she has had four or five other people work on-site in her absence throughout that time, though she says she was overseeing them.
West said Arborstone, which was owned by Indy Apartments LLC, was sold to a new owner on Tuesday, and she was no longer in charge after being employed there for the past three years. The identity of the new owner could not be confirmed by Recorder press time.
Of the eviction notices that were sent after news about the water shutoff broke, West said several residents had not been paying rent.
Allen and others said they paid their rent in cash sometimes and did not receive receipts, which West refuted. She also maintained her innocence in the case of the potentially forged notice.
“I’ve done this since 1999, and I’ve helped a lot of people in a lot of situations. I’ve been their sole supporter when it comes to finding a place to live, because they have evictions or felonies on their background,” she said. “I’ve helped people get furniture and clothes. So I’m not understanding why it has all come to this.”
In an email to the Recorder, the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County said their housing department has 35 active cases at various addresses at Arborstone Apartments. Of those cases, 28 have been filed for court for non-compliance and are pending. Seven other cases are still open for non-compliance, but those have not been filed for court, pending re-inspections, which are scheduled for the coming weeks.
“In speaking to our attorney, it does not appear that the actual owner of the company has ever appeared in court,” said Lara Morgan, a team leader with the Housing and Neighborhood Health Department, a division of Health and Hospital. Representatives, Morgan shared, have been there in the owners’ absences. If indeed Arborstone has been sold to a new owner, these cases would have to be refiled.
“If the property sells, we’d have to give notification of the violations to the new owner and allow them minimally 10 days to comply with all the violations,” said Morgan. If the issues haven’t been corrected, the cases would return to court. A judge, not the Marion County Public Health Department, has the power to declare an area uninhabitable.
Ross said the goal of Wednesday’s event and pending actions he plans to pursue is to shine a light on the situation and provide help to those who feel neglected.
“My goal is to help as many of them as want to, to get out of here,” he said.
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