Renters rally in Northwest Philadelphia, accusing apartment building owner of substandard living conditions
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Renters at Oak Lane Court Apartments rallied Thursday, accusing the building owner of failing to make requested repairs.
"Right here. Here you go. Nothing," said Kyreim Carter as she turned the knob on her heating system.
"You feel it, right? It's cold," she said from her bedroom. "I went out and I bought two space heaters, which I'm really scared of. I'm scared of that."
Carter said she is also using her oven to keep warm. She was worried about a possible fire in her home at the Oak Lane Court Apartments, where she said the heat has not worked since September. That is despite sending several maintenance requests, she said. She also showed CBS Philadelphia her bathroom, where she said there was another problem.
"Like my drain. My water goes down so slow, really slow," Carter said.
Carter and her neighbors said they wanted their own similar problems fixed right now. That is why they held a rally at the building owned by SBG Management. Sam Kiley is co-lead of the Renters' Justice Collective, which organized the protest.
"I'm doing this legally. There is a right to organize in Philadelphia, in these buildings," he said of the tenants.
Kiley said he wanted to know why these residents are paying rent and still seeing issues like lack of heat, broken ovens, and even an elevator that residents said has been broken since before November 2022.
"And they take that amount of money and are not putting it into actually making the conditions livable," Kiley said.
As for Carter, she said she was trying to save up enough money to move.
"I don't like it here. I don't want to be here. I don't," she said. "I just want to be comfortable. That's all."
CBS Philadelphia called and emailed SBG Management multiple times Thursday for a response and hasn't heard back.