FERGUSON, Mo. – Following reports of roach infestation and mold, Ferguson city leaders are concerned about the health of hundreds of residents who live in an apartment complex.
Residents at Versailles Apartments are complaining about the horrible living conditions, which is why city leaders are stepping in and demanding management do something about the situation.
The Ferguson mayor and city manager visited the complex on Monday and were surprised by what they saw.
“What I witnessed, it was horrible,” Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones said. “These are decent people; they deserve a good quality place to live. They pay they rent.”
The apartment complex houses close to 200 residents in about 100 units.
“I could not take it. I had to leave. No one should live like that,” Jones said.
The video was captured by the City of Ferguson Code Enforcement Unit and the Ferguson Police Department. Some apartments were infested with roaches and mold. Authorities are demanding the owners fix the issues for tenants.
“It’s infested with roaches. You walk around, and the roaches beat you walking around, and that is not good,” Jones said. “After they finished the inspections of all the apartments, about 96 units, they found about 80 violations. They are putting those violations together, and they are going to present them to the property owner.”
The city manager said during the inspections, crews discovered many residents living in the apartments had no heat, no hot water, and faulty appliances.
“We have a lot of old AC units there that were leaking, pipes that are leaking in the ceiling, which cause the tiles to buckle in,” Ferguson City Manager Eric Osterberg said. “Or for it to be a lot of moist areas in the apartment, which causes mold to start spreading. Out of the 96 units that we inspected yesterday, only one of them had proper heat and water.”
Authorities said Hughes Private Capital owns the property. FOX 2 reached out to the owner, but they had no comment.
“We are working diligently to get the owner to comply to the citations, and hopefully he would do it as soon as possible, so those people will have a better place to live,” Jones said.