Nonprofit neglected metro-east apartments, city and tenants say. They live with mold, pests
Robin Jackson, Chester Helm and their two daughters Gabriella, 4, and Avianna, 6, say they don’t have heat in their Cahokia Heights apartment building.
The family doesn’t use one of their bathrooms because it stinks like mold. At one point, they saw a mushroom growing out of a damp baseboard next to the sink.
They say the living room window lets water in when it rains, and cockroaches and mice have gotten inside. The kitchen sink leaked and the utility room plug needed to be replaced, which they took care of themselves. A smoke detector has been missing since they moved in.
Jackson, Helm and the girls have lived at Centreville Courts for almost a year and say they haven’t gotten help with the problems in their apartment despite their emails, calls and visits to the management office to complain or request repairs.
Tenants like the family of four, as well as city officials, feel the apartments have been neglected by the owner and property manager, which have put off millions of dollars worth of maintenance.
“It’s been nothin’ but downhill since we moved into this place,” Helm said.
Centreville Courts is a large, 12-building complex located just off of Illinois 157, about a mile south of Touchette Regional Hospital. It has about 100 units but a little over half of them are vacant.
The owner is a nonprofit housing organization based more than 300 miles away in Elgin called The Burton Foundation, which is operating in Cahokia Heights under the name Partnership 18 LP. Forsite Management Group, Inc. manages the property.
Lamar Gentry, the economic development director for Cahokia Heights, said The Burton Foundation is also not responding to the city’s requests to make improvements identified by code enforcement employees.
Some apartments in the complex have boarded up windows, missing siding and holes in the ceiling and floor from water damage. One former tenant has filed a civil lawsuit in St. Clair County Circuit Court over the conditions there.
Major issues include a mice infestation and leaking roofs, which are causing standing water in crawl spaces and mold, according to Gentry.
“The city’s not satisfied with the ownership nor the management of those apartments,” Gentry said.
“They simply have not done any repairs. … $5 million in deferred maintenance is what’s creating the problem,” he said, referring to the nonprofit’s own estimates. “The city has been trying to get them to fix some things. They’ve been reluctant to do that.”
The Burton Foundation recently told tenants the apartment complex was closing for financial reasons, then took it back and promised to make needed repairs to the buildings.
Officials from the nonprofit either declined to be interviewed for this article or did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Difficult times for Centreville Courts’
The Burton Foundation gave 48 tenants notice on Sept. 16 that they had 60 days to leave their Centreville Courts apartments because of the imminent closure. But it has rescinded the notice, which means tenants can stay if they want to, because the Illinois Housing Development Authority stepped in to stop the closure, the state agency said in a statement in response to Belleville News-Democrat questions.
The housing development authority OK’d over $8 million in federal low-income housing tax credits for the apartment complex’s construction in 2001, according to past BND reporting. As part of the agreement for tax credits, Centreville Courts is required to remain open and offer reduced rents to tenants with lower income levels until at least December 2029.
But the housing development authority and Centreville Courts leaders aren’t providing details about how they plan to keep the apartments open.
The Burton Foundation provided a list of reasons it couldn’t afford to in the Sept. 16 notice.
“Over the past two years, we have been unable to gain City approval for occupancy of units and have had a myriad of surprises related to water/sewer fees and other operational costs that make the project unfeasible to operate,” it stated. “The ownership has put in over half a million dollars to help with property operations and we are unable to continue to fund these costs to maintain the property to appropriate standards.”
The nonprofit sent a second letter to tenants within a matter of weeks that stated it had “recently made significant progress with finding help and support for this development to continue its operations.” It also apologized for asking tenants to leave.
“Thank you very much for your understanding of these difficult times for Centreville Courts and we hope that you will continue to work with us as we improve the community and restore it to a community you will be proud to live in,” The Burton Foundation stated.
The housing development authority didn’t respond to BND questions about whether it would provide more funding to Centreville Courts. It said only that it is working with The Burton Foundation to find a long-term solution.
Burton Foundation President Tracey Manning declined to comment when reached by phone last week.
“We don’t want to comment right now. We’re working it out,” she said.
The nonprofit’s board of directors didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Forsite Chief Financial Officer Barbara Logsdon, who is representing Centreville Courts in the former tenant’s lawsuit, also didn’t respond to the BND’s request for comment.
Tenants concerned for their health
Former tenant Mary Watts filed a lawsuit against Centreville Courts in July, arguing the property owner owes her damages for failing to provide safe and sanitary apartments. Watts, 58, lived there for seven years with her 31-year-old son.
Her lawsuit alleges water leaks caused mold to grow in her apartment, which the owner failed to address. In an interview, she said leaks also caused holes in the walls and weakened her floors.
“I put in work orders after work orders and nothing got done,” she said. “... That ain’t no way to live. That mold could have killed me and my son.”
The mold also worries Jackson and Helm because their daughter Avianna has bronchitis and Helm, 42, has asthma. They’re not staying at Centreville Courts even after The Burton Foundation said they could.
“I can’t let my kids keep breathing this,” Helm said. The family found another place to go that keeps the girls in the same school district.
Barry Bagley is concerned about his wife Tracy Smith’s health around the mold, too. She has COPD and a heart condition that required surgery in 2020.
They’ve lived at Centreville Courts for six years and have retired in that time, Smith from her job as a cook in the Saint Louis University student dining hall and Bagley from his job as a custodian for Washington University.
Watts, Bagley and Smith all said Centreville Courts used to be well-maintained until about 2020. That’s when they closed the swimming pool and clubhouse in the apartment complex where tenants used to throw parties. Neighbors started leaving. And management largely stopped making repairs and responding to pests like cockroaches and mice, tenants say.
“We thought we was gonna be happy here,” Smith said. “Last couple of years, it ain’t been a happy time.”
Bagley and Smith say they have complained to management about a broken window and holes in the ceiling of their utility room and the floor in front of their kitchen sink from leaks in their apartment and the neighbor’s apartment upstairs. A maintenance worker covered the window and the floor with plywood. The ceiling remains open over their washer and dryer.
They have been on a waiting list with the St. Clair County Housing Authority for a new apartment since August, before The Burton Foundation sent out the now-rescinded 60-day notices to move.
“It’s just heartbreaking you got to live through stuff like this,” Bagley said. “We shouldn’t have to. I mean, we’re elderly. She’s 64. I’m 63. It should be better than this.”
This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
