‘Deteriorating’: Residents live in unbearable conditions at northwest Charlotte apartments

CHARLOTTE — Residents at a northwest Charlotte apartment complex told Channel 9 that the living conditions are unbearable.

9 Investigates looked into the matter Reporter Almiya White saw mold covering doors and cabinets, bugs crawling across counters and walls ripped apart.

Management has not fixed the issues.

Latasha McElhaney moved to Scarlet Pointe Apartments off Toddville Road in 2014 and said living in the complex is inhumane. She wants to move but can’t find another place to live.

“To just stay in here is dangerous,” McElhaney said. “Because as you see, everything is deteriorating every day. Everything is falling apart.”

McElhaney told White that conditions started deteriorating soon after moving into building 1315.

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“A couple of months down the road, you know, everything started tearing up,” she said. “So, you know, I started calling the office and telling them what was going on.”

McElhaney said apartment management ignored her calls, so she called the city.

“They said, ‘Well, these are all code violations,’” McElhaney said. “So, they moved us from one violation to another.”

Last year, McElhaney moved to another building on the property where she said living conditions were worse. The rent is $878 a month.

“When the upstairs neighbor washes her clothes, her washing machine liquid comes down and ends up on my kitchen floor,” McElhaney said. “As you see, it has lifted the floor.”

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McElhaney sent White a video taken last month that shows water gushing out of the walls.

“It was bubbles, coming up from the baseboard,” she said. “And it left a wall kind of like hollow where when you touch it, you can feel it like caving in.”

McElhaney said her youngest son almost got shocked by the water heater in the hallway because it’s missing a door.

“(An) apartment that’s not livable in. We’re abandoned,” McElhaney said.

Management has continued to ignore her maintenance requests, she said.

“I feel like these apartments should get shut down,” she said. “We pay them our rent money, but nothing is to show for it. You have nothing to show for it. All they want is rent money and don’t fix anything, so I don’t feel safe at all.”

The apartments are owned by a company in New Jersey and managed by a company based in Atlanta.

White tried to contact the management company twice but has not gotten a response.

She also tried to get in touch with agencies, including code enforcement and the fire department. White is waiting on a reply from them, as well.

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