FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A former employee of an apartment complex is speaking out after seeing the conditions residents have had to live with for years.
From what Kuwasi Turner claims - and has documented through pictures and videos - there was mold, bug infestations, broken elevators, and more at the Lillie R. Campbell House along Campbellton Road in Atlanta.
"The property was a beast," he said. "I worked at numerous properties that were beasts and this one was a nightmare."
On its website, Lillie R. Campbell says it "was founded with a mission to provide Senior Adults a luxurious and carefree living experience, at a realistic and affordable cost."
Turner, who was a former technician there, says a glimpse inside the complex showed it was anything but "luxurious and carefree."
"Termite infestation, rat infestation, roach infestation... It's not a decent place to work in or live," he said.
Turner says he has been a technician, working in different properties, for 12 years. He was hired about two months ago to fix maintenance issues around the property.
Part of the reason he had to quit had to do with his health issues tied to his exposure to what he believes was mold.
"Oh, it was to the point where I was sick at one point. First, you start off with headaches, then I felt dizzy. I almost fainted another night, things like that," he said.
He says the issues he tried to tackle around the apartment complex, required more people.
"I've been told numerous times that we don't have it in the budget to pay for more help," he claimed.
That's why Turner believes residents, like Bonnie Clark, have to wait days, to weeks, and sometimes months, to get their work orders fulfilled.
"I have a dishwasher that's been out since the pandemic," Clark said. "And my air conditioner blows but it doesn't get cold right now. Later on tonight, it'll get up as high as 84 degrees. I've had to do some other things, spend some of the money to try and keep cool."
Clark bought about three different fans to try to keep her apartment cool during these hot months. When 11Alive went into her apartment one warm afternoon, the thermostat read 78 degrees.
She says it is especially difficult to stay cool when the elevators stop working. Clark is on the fourth floor and has to take the stairs whenever that happens.
"I've seen the EMS come in with people on a stretcher and not able to get them up," she said. "They were coming in, I came down the stairs, and they were like, 'What are we going to do?' I told them, 'I don't know.'"
Last week, the elevators were operating on "independent service mode," which is when an elevator will not respond whenever you hit the call button on a floor. Instead, a resident would have to walk to the floor where the elevator is, get on it, and select the floor they wish to go to.
"I'm on the fourth floor. If I go down the stairs, I can get off and look. Is it on the third floor? Nope. Hit back. Go back down some more stairs. I look - is it on the second floor? Nope. By the time I get to the first one, there it is, and by then I'm all the way down," Clark explained. "I called management and they told me that I needed to get to know my neighbors downstairs and call them and ask them to get on the elevator and press the button and bring it up for me to go down."
11Alive reached out to CAHEC Management, Inc., which addressed all the concerns over the phone.
A spokesperson with the 40-year-old property management company says they took over Lillie R. Campbell House on May 1 and claims the property was neglected by the previous company.
"I understand they didn't have anything to do – they're new. But I'm the same old resident. I pay my rent every month and the amenities that are advertised indicates elevators, it indicates trash," Clark said.
In the past three months, she says CAHEC brought in crews to treat the whole building after the bug infestations and temporarily closed the trash room during weekends while this improves.
CAHEC is looking into providing residents with a valet service to make the trash room accessible during weekends soon, but she says the trash room was one of the sources of the infestations.
Clark says not having that room available has been an inconvenience.
"We are senior citizens. We have paid our dues," she said. "We're trying to leave comfortably and peacefully and a lot of us have our rent subsidized by the federal government. So they're getting their money, they're just not caring."
The CAHEC spokesperson adds that their priority is the health and safety of its residents. One of the first things they did, she says, was run an air quality test where they found Stachybotrys. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes Stachybotrys as "a greenish-black mold. Growth occurs when there is moisture from water damage, water leaks, condensation, water infiltration, or flooding. Constant moisture is required for its growth."
She says they brought in the crews for the air quality test because many pipes burst after the arctic weather in December.
As for the elevators, the spokesperson says lightning hit the elevators after several bad storms, and they were waiting for new parts to come in. She adds that if residents have an emergency, they can call their emergency line.
She adds that normally, for a property that size, they would have one maintenance tech, but are bringing in extra to deal with all of the issues they say they inherited.
Turner says one is not enough.
"With the dynamics they have set up, things will never be done," Turner said. "You have one technician there that has to take out the trash in the morning, and you have to take this big barrel of trash out to the trash cans in the morning. After that, someone has to pick up grounds and do grounds as well. You have to then jump into work orders. Then you have to get everything ready for a tenant to move in. Usually in most places I work at, we bring in contractors for work like that. I'm the only one there."
CAHEC also says the property owners applied for a full building rehabilitation through the City of Atlanta. The spokesperson says they expect to hear back on that this fall.