WAYNE, Mich. – The first thing that hits you when you step inside the Newberry Square Apartments is the smell when you first walk into the building.
It’s a stale, musty odor that permeates the walls and floors of the five-story building located just off W. Michigan Avenue in the city of Wayne.
It has been without air conditioning for weeks, and this week’s heatwave has made already brutal conditions unbearable for the residents.
“You see how hot it is? The heat and the A/C does not work,” Courtney, a resident at the apartment, said on Thursday (July 2).
Courtney has lived here with her service dog since January.
She moved here because it was one of the few places she could afford.
The locks on her door are broken, the smell fills her apartment, and roaches infest her sink and this building.
The temperature inside her apartment at midday Thursday was 95 degrees.
“This temperature is too high,” Courtney said. “It shouldn’t be like that in here.”
Dov also moved into this building with his four cats back in January, but he’s had enough and moved out on Thursday.
His apartment was a slightly cooler 89 degrees. But it actually gets worse around sunset when the sun shines into his apartment.
“It’s like almost 100 degrees in this apartment sometimes, especially if you’re sitting in this living room,” Dov said.
The lack of A/C, he says, is a symptom of a larger issue in the building since the former manager left.
“Generally, each floor didn’t stink,” Dov said. “Each floor didn’t have its own distinct smell.”
“Even though he wasn’t necessarily the most trustworthy person,” Dov said. “He also took care of the building.”
The building was taken over earlier this year by a new, unnamed management group based out of Texas.
We went by the building’s management office, and no one answered the door.
A sign on the door said they would be gone until next Monday, July 6.
“They say they’re off until the 6th, but they’re off every day,” Dov said.
A Texas-based phone number on the door led to the building’s manager, a man who only went by “Frank.”
Frank, while not addressing the other issues in the building, said the cooling issue was due to a malfunction in the chillers.
He said the air conditioning should start working by next Tuesday, July 7.
Which couldn’t come fast enough for Courtney and her dog.
“It’s not safe,” Courtney said. “The temperatures are not safe. In the wintertime, it’s the same thing. I’m anemic. They need to do something about this.”