Residents At Camden Apartments Fed Up With 'Slumlords' Refusing To Deal With Overflowing Trash
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CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- The trash has been overflowing for weeks and it stinks. It's hard to not smell a big whiff of the garbage just stepping outside.
"It makes me not want to live here anymore, it's disgusting," one resident said.
More than 30 dumpsters at the Crestbury Apartments in Camden are overflowing with trash.
"It's kinda embarrassing for us to see this," one man said.
Eyewitness News saw several cats looking for dinner in the garbage Monday night.
Hundreds of people live at the apartments and say they've been dealing with these trash troubles for too long.
"It's been like this for two, three weeks, almost a month," one man said.
"I seen a raccoon come in this one. You see all rodents," one woman said.
"Forcing people to live under these conditions in the city of Camden is unacceptable," Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli said.
Cappelli told Eyewitness News the property owner owes Waste Management money, which is why the trash has not been removed.
"But it's on the owners of that property to make sure the trash is collected," Cappelli said.
Eyewitness News discovered the property manager is a corporation called WinnResidential. Now, officials promise to take action.
"We're gonna find out the names of the owners of the corporation and we're gonna find where they live and print their pictures in the local newspapers. We're gonna put their name and after their name we're gonna put 'slumlords,' because that's what they are," Cappelli said.
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Starting first thing Tuesday morning, Camden County and city health inspectors will arrive at the apartments to investigate what happened and issue fines, if necessary.
Camden County officials say Waste Management will also come around 8 a.m. to collect the trash as a courtesy.
WinnResidential told Eyewitness News that all trash has been collected as of Tuesday morning.
"We apologize to residents of Crestbury Apartments for the one-week delay in trash collection at the property. The trash collection problem occurred when we recently switched contractors in order to improve service. As of this morning, all trash has been collected and the dumpster areas on the property have been cleaned up. Issues with the new contractor have been resolved. Going forward, dumpsters on the property will be emptied four times a week, instead of three times a week. In addition, we are working with the contractor to determine whether more dumpsters or larger dumpsters should be placed on the property. These steps will prevent problems like this from happening again. We appreciate the patience of residents and we apologize again for any inconvenience this situation may have caused."
People who live at the Crestbury Apartments say that can't come soon enough.
