INDIANAPOLIS — RTV6 tried to speak to the managers of a north side apartment complex on Tuesday evening, but instead they declined. So, RTV6 has been talking to residents.
This report follows the newsroom's original story on Friday about major health concerns at Lakeside Pointe at Nora. Things have been so bad inside the apartment complex that the health department has stepped in.
READ | Major health concerns at north side Indianapolis apartment complex |
The residents have been telling the newsroom that problems in their apartments are often left unresolved.
"I still have a closet they haven’t fixed for a year," Tania Torres A La Torre, a resident of the apartment complex, said. "We haven’t had hot water for ten, or more than ten days."
Torres says there are dozens of other residents who don't have hot water. She said she hadn't filed a complaint with the Marion County Public Health Department.
On Friday RTV6 reported more than 20 cases the health department referred to court at Lakeside Pointe at Nora after nothing was done to correct the issues.
"It’s kind of hard for the maintenance guys to complete the things if they’re having difficulty getting the parts and supplies that they need," a former employee said. RTV6 is keeping the employee's identity concealed.
She says there's only a couple of maintenance workers on site.
"On a property this size, almost 600 units, you really should have six guys," she said.
Since the original report, RTV6 has received dozens of pictures and videos from inside the apartments showing mold, doors hanging off the hinges and floors peeling up. When there on Friday, the newsroom saw several smoke detectors in common areas that were chirping.
She says despite the problems, she was told to keep moving people in.
"A band-aid has been put on everything – nothing ever really gets fixed," the former employee said. "We’re constantly told that we need to increase occupancy and get the occupancy up and move people in. I just didn’t feel comfortable moving people into these conditions over here."
She also said that many of the residents had language barriers that made speaking up for themselves a challenge.
"The community consists of, I would say, a large Hispanic population and a large Burmese population," she said. "It’s better than where they come from so they think that it’s OK, but it’s not OK."
The former employee said that the lack of hot water was the final straw.
"I was trying to get the situation taken care of, and I was told that I was whining and things that I was saying I shouldn’t be saying," she said.
An attorney for Lakeside Pointe at Nora told RTV6, "Immediately when we became aware of the issues we ordered a new hot water tank."
The attorney also said there were unforeseen technical problems preventing installation and saying they will be able to install the hot water tank on Wednesday.
The attorney for Lakeside Pointe at Nora also provided the newsroom with the following statement:
"Management is mindful of the interests of its residents and has been working diligntly to address their needs - the resident's comfort is our priority."
