DETROIT (WXYZ) — Months of neglect and illegal trash dumping at a vacant Detroit apartment complex have residents sounding the alarm for help.
Watch Simon Shaykhet's video report:
The property owner is now on the radar of city leaders, who are promising a permanent solution.
The complex is located at Greenfield and Grove, near McNichols, on the city's west side.
"Obviously, this is a foreclosure, or something is going on. Who’s in control? Who’s in charge?” Detroiter Tony Jefferson asked.
Ticketed for blight and boarded up, the Detroit Law Department said the property has attracted illegal trash dumping and people squatting for months.
I called one number listed outside, only to hear a prior property manager tell me that "we are no longer affiliated with them." Another number I called was also a dead end.
From there, I contacted Detroit City Council and showed them images of what neighbors have to look at.
“The building is vacant, trash all throughout. This is a large apartment complex. There’s going to be a multi-department effort tomorrow to deal with this issue," Councilman Coleman A. Young II said.
“Team Waters will join colleagues to clean it up, but Simon, here’s the problem. It is absentee landlords," Councilwoman Mary Waters added.
Conrad Mallet, the corporation counsel for the City of Detroit, said the law department will be filing a case against the building's owner, demanding they explain how the property has been allowed to be in "derelict condition."
He told us it will be filed in the next 72 hours, and expects the owner to be in front of them in the next 14 days.
“They come fix it. They mess it up again. Kids look at this. Everybody sees it. Look at all these buildings. Everybody sees it," Jefferson said.
