Mold problems, water leaking from ceilings, disabled residents put on the second floor even though they can't climb stairs - those are some of the allegations in a federal lawsuit filed Monday against the Anderson Housing Authority.
It's on behalf of people who live in a low-income apartment complex in Anderson. Some of them told the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana they feel trapped in the complex.
Maggie Davis has to cover her nose in the halls of Westvale Manor.
"That's a storage locker," she said, opening one of the narrow closets filled with trash. "But we don't put our stuff in here. Well I don't."
In her own apartment, there's a hole barely patched in the bathroom ceiling above her shower.
The shower head itself is corroded and pulled away from the wall.
"The woman who was living up there above me, she could see down in my bathroom," Davis explained.
Then Davis and resident Gwen Jones pointed out the back door in their building's hallway. There's no lock, just a cord wrapped around the handle and dangling onto the floor.
Anyone can get in.
"Yeah, I've called about that since I've been here and hasn't been fixed, though," Jones said.
Failure to make repairs is just one of the complaints in a federal lawsuit just filed against the Anderson Housing Authority. It's also alleged the Housing Authority discriminated against people who live at Westvale on the basis of race, gender and disability.
Amy Nelson with the Fair Housing Center launched an investigation last summer after a letter from a resident requesting help.
She said Westvale Manor is one of two multi-family housing complexes operated by the AHA. The lawsuit alleges there are stark differences in the care and maintenance of Westvale, which has predominately black residents, than the other complex, which has more white residents.
The lawsuit also includes a few pictures of the reported maintenance problems: mold-covered cabinets, shower curtains used for doors and ceilings sagging and leaking from the weight of rainwater.
"There were holes in a number of bathrooms as well as in bedrooms and water was just coming into their units. There were problems with pests. The garbage was not being picked up," Nelson said. "Dozens of residents complained over a long period of time and it was unfortunately only when we got involved that they did start making some basic repairs."
Gwen Jones has since been moved to another apartment. But she says for months, she had to deal with rainwater in her bedroom.
She claims requests for repairs went unheeded for a while.
"I couldn't even sleep in my room. I had to sleep on the living room couch," Jones said. "I would have thought they'd come in immediately and fixed that since that's being my bedroom and it's pouring down raining in my bed. I mean directly in my bed!"
Allegations of sexual harassment were also included in the lawsuit.
"In addition to deplorable, race-based housing conditions, Westvale residents also reported to the Fair Housing Center that reasonable accommodation requests were ignored or denied and that several AHA maintenance men demanded sexual favors from female residents in exchange for needed repairs," the suit claims. It says for years, maintenance men would try to grope women or ask for sexual favors, in exchange for repairs being made in their homes.
Nelson says many of the residents at Westvale felt trapped.
"They wanted this to be an opportunity for them to get out of poverty and instead they felt really locked in, in these particular units," Nelson explained. "These individuals time and time again told me how trapped they felt and that they were never going to get out of there. That was just so striking to me because that's not how it's supposed to be."
Eyewitness News reached out to the Anderson Housing Authority by phone and by email, but we did not hear back Monday afternoon or evening.
No hearing date is scheduled in court yet for this case, since the lawsuit was just filed.
Nelson said the goal is to get policies with AHA changed and make sure Westvale Manor is properly maintained.
Click here to read the lawsuit in its entirety.
