By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Tenants described living in hell-like conditions at the Stratford Arms. It’s one of four apartment buildings officially condemned today by the city of Newark. Alysia Torres heads one of about 100 families living in these buildings. She’s got four kids.
“The heat doesn’t work in the wintertime. It’s extremely cold. Hot water goes out, and maintenance doesn’t show up. We have a 24-hour hotline that we can call, but they don’t come out. Just the other day we had a leak. The fire department came and had to shut off the lights in the building,” Torres said.
“We have to walk across feces, needles. We have little kids. The urine. It’s terrible,” said Denise Waller.
These are mostly Section 8, federally-subsidized apartments. Waller took us upstairs to the fourth floor, and showed us her bathroom where management had patched and painted over the leaks, but she claims mold, and even mushrooms, grow here.
She said when people upstairs took a bath or shower the water came into her bathroom through the light fixture. “It was all over here, but all they did whatever they did. They didn’t fix any pipes. They just covered it up,” she said adding that eventually mushroom started growing.
The four buildings, 2 and 18 Stratford Place and 23 and 25 Johnson Avenue, are all owned by Virginia residents Wayne and Denise Fox, of Realty Management Associates.
“As you know the elevators weren’t working. We were here a year and a half ago. The fire escapes were very egregious. They were inoperable as well,” Patrick Council, director of neighborhood services, said.
“When you look up ‘slumlord’ in the dictionary you probably see the Foxes there,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said.
For more than a decade, the city’s cited Realty Management for hundreds of code violations, Baraka says, and it finally took Realty Management to court last week.
“Twice they didn’t show up. We have warrants out for their arrest; Wayne and Denise Fox. So if they show up here anybody should report them,” he said.
The mayor says Newark’s working with HUD to get residents permanent vouchers, and to relocate them to other apartments in Newark.
“And this should be a message to all of the landlords in our city that we expect Newarkers to be treated with respect. We expect them to be able to live in conditions any other human being would want to live in — no matter how much money they make a year.
Realty Management claims its buildings passed a recent HUD inspection, and is fighting the city in court, noting, “The issues alleged by the city have never existed or have been fully abated and at absolutely no time have these buildings ever been a threat to its residents’ health or safety […] We look forward to the opportunity to present all the facts, evidence and circumstances at the appropriate time.”
Tenants disagree.
“It’s like no maintenance, no up-keeping done or anything. And from my understand they’re supposed to be closing it down,” said Tawana Wakefield. When asked what she thinks about closing it down she says, “I think it’s a good thing because I want to move.”
While lawyers for the city and the management company clash in court, the administration says it hopes to relocate all 100 families by Thanksgiving.