Garland apartment tenants still dealing with flood damages a week later
GARLAND, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - One week after devastating floods in some parts of North Texas, a few residents have been forced to continue living in deplorable conditions caused by all that water.
At least two families in Garland have been living for days with severe water damage that they said the landlord has not addressed.
The family that lives in the unit and the one next door both had their ceilings collapse which led to several inches of rain flooding their bedrooms.
They want it fixed or at least to be relocated because with all the water damage and exposed wiring, they don't feel safe.
"It's hot, it's muggy, you can smell the mold, you can smell the rotting wood," said Steven Jones.
The stench of rain soaked carpet fills the place Azariah Erving and Jones call home.
"I feel like at this point it should be almost condemned," Jones said.
This is what the couple recorded last week when rain started collecting above the ceiling in their 6-year-old daughter, Genesis' bedroom.
It was when the streets around DFW were flooding from record rainfall.
Eventually, it caused the ceiling collapse right over the bed Genesis had just jumped out of.
"He put her to bed and then shortly she came back into the living room and said 'it's raining in my room,'" said Azariah Erving.
One week later, the ceiling is still missing.
Keesee Elliott is a DISD substitute teacher who lives next door and said she was forced to make her own ceiling repair with a piece of cardboard.
"There's no telling what kind of fumes and particles I've been inhaling and I'm scared. I haven't slept in here since this happened," Elliott said.
They live in Lake Point Condominiums. Its on-site property management company, Madera Residential, said in a statement to CBS 11 News that it's aware of the problems and "...we have been diligently addressing them through contractors and an affiliated HOA."
The units in this large low income complex are technically individually owned condos with an HOA that those living here don't know anything about.
Tenants who are paying $1,200 a month in rent call their condos nothing more than substandard apartments and say on site management refuses to even tell them who their owner is.
"Give me a temporary fix, something," said Jones. "It's all wood and drywall. It's all a fire hazard if this falls in or if we would have another lightning storm and rain."
Jones said they have been told they will face higher rents or have to go through the application process again if they want to relocate to another unit.
The one they are still living in, a week later, still has noticeable holes in the roof despite the statement from the property manager saying that the HOA "... did in fact make all needed repairs through a licensed roofer, last week. It was all done Thursday."
The tenants adamantly dispute that and point to all these exposed beams and wiring as proof.
The only effort they've seen to fix this started today when we got involved and they say it was just lip service patch work repairs.