Audit reveals residents of Atlantic City federal housing property dealing with extreme pest infestation, mold
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Atlantic City officials are calling a federal housing apartment complex some of the worst federal housing they have ever seen.
"Lights don’t work at all. They stopped working almost a year," resident Maria Rivera said.
"How do you see?" asked FOX 29’s Marcus Espinoza.
"With my light bulb. This is how I do it. It’s easy for me," Rivera replied.
The Stanley Holmes Village Apartments, in Atlantic City, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development owned and operated property, is in shambles and is anything but easy to live in.
Residents like Taniyah Bradford have been living with black mold for years.
"I’ve gone around to their office so many times and they’ve told me they’re going to have somebody come and nobody showed up. I’m steady breathing this in," Bradford said.
Last month, residents of the complex made their dire situation known to city council. Thursday, the council laid out their findings after conducting an audit of the buildings living conditions last week.
Some of what the council discovered after inspecting 77 percent of the units include:
- 67 have heat issues
- 45 have hot water issues
- More than 100 combined smoke and carbon monoxide detectors not being used properly
- 220 have extreme mice, bed bugs and cockroach infestations
- 106 have mold intrusion
- Many with non-working toilets and ovens
"We’re going to be issuing violation notices as we would with any other apartment complex to address all those matters," Director of Atlantic City L&I Dale Finch stated.
Looking around inside a resident’s home brings the truly awful conditions to light.
"This is nasty," Bradford said.
"You don’t want to live here, but you don’t have a choice? It’s your only choice?" Espinoza asked.
"Yes," Bradford answered.
"In this apartment, you have two temperatures. Either extremely hot or extremely cold. You’re either wearing clothes or you’re not wearing clothes," Rivera explained.
City officials made it clear, no one should be living in the apartments.
"It can be said, if we did an occupancy inspection to authorize rental units, not one would pass," Finch remarked.
City officials encourage anyone living in the apartment complex and are experiencing similar issues, reach out to them and get help.