DETROIT – Tenants at 2911 Sturtevant Street on Detroit’s west side are living without heat, dealing with leaking water and fearing collapsing ceilings.
From the outside, the building may not look bad, but inside, conditions are shocking. Glass falls from the ceiling regularly, and water damage is widespread.
Brittany Rogers, a resident, says mold was present and the landlord never addressed it. She has no other place to go.
The city has ordered tenants to vacate by Feb. 11 because the building is deemed unsafe.
Rogers expressed concern about the short notice. “I don’t mind vacating because you see the conditions, that’s fine, but seven days, four days. That is too little of a time to try to vacate.”
The city posted the notice on Feb. 5 after inspectors confirmed there was no heat or hot water.
Dave Bell, director of Buildings, Safety Engineering & Environmental, said the building owner refuses to fix the boiler. “We’re going to issue them at least a thousand dollars in tickets, we’re going to forward it to the law department for action, but we’re not going to allow them to say we’re not going to fix it.”
The property is owned by Real Token, a company facing a lawsuit for neglecting more than 400 homes and accumulating over $500,000 in violations.
Marquita Valentine, another tenant, said, “We should be fundamentally working to make the worst person’s life the best because then everybody would be okay.”
City officials have met with tenants inside the building and plan to return to help residents find safe housing.
Chelsea Neblett, chief of Housing Services and Supportive Solutions, said, “We want to make sure that people have safe housing that have heat and utilities.”
The city plans to return to the property Monday afternoon to assist tenants with next steps.