YPSILANTI, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Arbor One apartments on Green Road in Ypsilanti are under close watch after city officials say many units aren’t up to code.
One unit that we saw was condemned.
“You see the notice on the door, it says mold… water damage,” said Leslie Acklin of Ypsilanti.
Acklin’s sister, Lisa Cole, used to live in the apartment that has that red notice on the door. Cole died on January 9th.
Acklin recently reached out to us, wanting to highlight what was going on in her sister’s apartment.
“There’s no reason to why she had to live in these horrid conditions,” said Acklin.
Cole’s apartment was condemned about a week before she died.
Pictures show some of the inside of the unit.
You can see a broken toilet and exposed installation in the bathroom.
Cole’s son, Izaiah Herrell, lived with his mom in the apartment.
“The bathroom in our house was really messed up because it was water leaking from the second floor,” said Izaiah Herrell, Lisa Cole’s son.
As 7 News Detroit reporter Tiarra Braddock was talking to Acklin and her nephew, another Arbor One tenant approached me wanting to share his concerns with his apartment.
“Welcome to my half a door, fallen home,” said tenant John Parker.
Parker says many things need to be fixed in his apartment, including his heat, water, plus more.
“We went to shut the door the other day, our whole door knob fell off,” said Parker. “Here’s my knob, here’s my screw, but this thing is so messed up that you have to use pliers to turn it on, it won’t do it by itself.”
I went to the Arbor One management office to speak with someone, but there was no answer at the door.
I was able to speak with Washtenaw County Commissioner Annie Sommerville about the issues the tenants were facing. She was at the apartment complex on Wednesday.
“We’re trying to get tenants at Arbor One information about their legal rights: how to contact legal aid and just explaining to them what it means to put rent in escrow,” said Sommerville.
Sommerville added that the county is working with the city of Ypsilanti to make sure Arbor One’s management gets the apartments up to code.
“They reached out to us to say, 'Hey, there are a lot of problems, we’ve been doing building inspections, and we’re noticing issues with heat and sewage backup,'” said Sommerville.
County Commissioner Somerville and her team will be back at Arbor One Apartments on Friday starting at 11 am.
