Residents and tenant activists protest the living conditions and management at Vista Del Rey Apartments on Saturday.Tenants are getting organized at an apartment complex rife with conditions they call dangerous and that authorities say is fraught with code violations, including a lack of a valid occupancy certificate.
“We are here to remind management and David Shippy that we will not be prisoners in our own home and refuse to be your cash machine,” Denise Garcia said through a microphone, reading the petition aloud. “More than the violation of the law, we are wanting a reprieve from the stress, shame and frustrations from all the major maintenance issues that have taken a toll on us and our families,” she said.
Nadarah Hawkins, a tenant at Vista Del Rey, says she and her 4-year-old daughter, Lotius, have been without hot water for more than two monthsShe used to have a job working from home for a call center but had to leave because her units’ condition took such a toll on her mental health. “I really liked the job, but I couldn’t even function,” she said.
Many of the tenants say they’re charged wrongful fees: pet fees when they don’t have pets; pest control when they don’t get pest control; rental fees for laundry machines they don’t have.The Vista Del Rey Tenants Union’s petition has been building for months, organizers said, as they went door-to-door to collect signatures. The process was led initially by the Tenants Union of San Antonio, a housing rights group, but snowballed as tenants took over the process.
The email, sent May 18, urged residents to sign up for rent relief from the city because the rent money it could provide would help pay for repairs at the property. “When almost half of the community isn’t paying, it [affects] the entire property so lets get the help we need to keep our property running.”
Wow what a terrible landlord this is crazy I hope they take shippy to court