INDIANAPOLIS — There are still people living at the Lakeside Pointe at Nora Apartments who don't have hot water. They haven't for weeks. And we learned problems that were apparently fixed were only patched up and are becoming problems again.
Will Corley told us in March about a leaky pipe that flooded his apartment. He said it was fixed before and patched again in March.
"I was just sitting here watching a movie, and I heard it dripping," Corley said. "It sounded like it was raining in the hallway."
This week, the pipe started leaking again.
"If I have water continue to come into my apartment, it will form mold and mildew under my carpet," he said. "Seeing as I sleep there, I'm going to end up breathing it in. It's going to cause me multiple health problems with my lungs."
Mold at the apartments has been reported to the Marion County Public Health Department before. A spokesman said they have continued to issue additional note of violation orders over the past few weeks.
Keri Kornelson has worked to help teach English to immigrants and refugees who often live at Lakeside Pointe at Nora Apartments.
"Helping to just advocate for these families, we found out they have been living in horrible conditions over there," Kornelson said. "Dangerous conditions like black mold."
She provided photos of one apartment she said management refused to move residents from.
"I could not be in there more than five minutes without getting a headache from the mold," she said.
Eventually, the family was moved and Kornelson said, at times, there have been helpful managers there, but the ones who help quickly leave and said new managers are often rude.
"They have just refused to help these families that live there that are paying rent," Kornelson said.
Kornelson said she often had to convince immigrant families to report the dangerous conditions they experienced.
"The residents are afraid of losing their homes," she said. "They're afraid of backlash from the management because the management has often taken it out on them."
We called the apartments again today to ask if hot water had been restored to four buildings the health department said don't have it. A woman named Eryka answered the phone and said they were working on it — the same answer she gave me more than two weeks ago.
"I'm going to speak up for them when they can't speak up for themselves," Kornselson said.
We asked for a copy of the bond that was given as a loan to the company that owns Lakeside Point at Nora Apartments. The city said a local law firm has it, and we are still waiting on that request.
