SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Shemelia Brandon and her family are at a loss. They don't know what to do about the raw sewage in their basement.
"It's still water under here, under this table," Brandon said
They live in the El Dorado Townhomes, not far from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Brandon said the seepage started around a week ago.
"The smell was horrible. Saturday, we had to leave the house for half the day. Sunday we had to leave the house," she said.
Brandon told 13News they have repeatedly reached out to the property management Hayes Gibson Property Services but received little support. She said according to them, this was a city issue.
"What made me upset is they told me to my face 'no, we are not going to do anything about the raw sewage in your basement, figure it out.'" said Brandon.
She said after she contacted the county health department, property management sent a carpet cleaner and someone to power wash the basement, which she said just made a bigger mess.
"It was just poop, debris, just raw sewage all right there where you're standing." said Brandon.
To make matters worse, she says they just dumped the waste in the parking lot.
"That's toxic. That's biohazard. That's just human waste he just let out in the parking lot," Brandon said.
She says the unsanitary living conditions have started to make the things unbearable for her and her family.
"Suffering from headaches and not being able to breathe properly," said Brandon.
Brandon and her family are not alone. Since the pandemic started, thousands of Hoosiers have called Indiana's 211 line for housing help. A bill in the Indiana Senate that could have helped Hoosier renters, including requiring landlords to fix an essential service within 24 hours, won't move forward this session. There's a deadline for the House version next week.
Advocates are frustrated that these measures seem to be stalling.
"This is a policy choice that Indiana has chosen to make, to not address this glaring lack of enforcement of health and safety laws that are already on the books," said Andrew Bradley, policy director for Prosperity Indiana..
Brandon said her experience makes her want to fight harder for stronger renter protections.
"Tenants, we deserve rights too. Just because we don't own this building, we still pay rent to live here. We still take care of this space that we are in. We need rights and deserve rights." said Brandon.
Things could be looking up for them. Brandon said they received a letter telling them a bio team will be servicing townhomes on Friday and Saturday to remove the sewage in the basements. They're hoping this team is equipped to handle the mess.
Carson L. Hayes, principal from Hayes Gibson, sent this statement to 13News about their plans to clean up the sewage.
"Last Friday there was a blockage. We quickly ran a camera through the line to determine where the blockage was and the video showed it was in the City’s portion of the line, not on our property. We quickly provided that information to the City, and the City fixed the blockage on Monday. Even though the backup was from the City’s line, we right away started water extraction on Tuesday. That has continued and bio-hazard cleaning is being done today.
Indiana Sen. Fady Qaddoura sent this statement to 13News:
"Despite the setback caused by the General Assembly's decision to not advance protections for property taxpayers who are renters, I'm more determined than ever to work tirelessly for the voiceless in our communities so that they are not treated as second class citizens. Indiana is one of five states nationwide without protections for property taxpayers who are renters. By not acting on SB 202, the General Assembly's inaction provides cover to negligent corporate landlords. All Hoosiers deserve safe and secure housing."