from Cleveland Scene: St. Clair Place Apartment Residents Say Landlords Have Let Building Fall Into Dangerous Disrepair

It was roughly a year and a half into Marlon Floyd's tenancy at St. Clair Place, a 200-unit low-income apartment complex for seniors and those with disabilities, when he became aware of a clear imbalance.

A retired welder in his mid-sixties, Floyd started tallying a list of complaints and hazards. Late fees for missed rent piled up after rent was paid. Chairs showed up in the lounge, then disappeared.  Management turned off heat one winter.

"And what do you think happened? Boom, boom, boom," Floyd, 67, said sitting in a chair in St. Clair Place's lobby. "It blew all the valves. Water was out for about three months."'

In 2019, Floyd connected with lawyers at the Legal Aid Society, shortly after he helped form, and then spearhead, the St. Clair Place Tenants Association. After attempts to mediate safety worries and rent confusion with the landlords, Owner's Management Co. and St. Clair Place Cleveland, Ltd., Floyd and another tenant last December filed a complaint in Cleveland Housing Court alleging that management was violating Section 8 housing rules stipulated by the Department of Housing & Urban Development.

On Wednesday afternoon, Floyd, five lawyers at Legal Aid and a spattering of miffed tenants gathered on the corner of East 13th and St. Clair Avenue to, once again, attempt to hold their landlords accountable for years of inaction. Or as a sign that Floyd himself held up to nearby press and passing cars put it simply: "We Want Safe Housing."

City Hall is currently attempting to leverage an overhaul of its housing code to deter bad actors —whether in Cleveland, or based in Los Angeles or Sweden—from neglecting their duties to tenants.

Which, according to Floyd's complaint filed in December, is the overaching issue.

Filed with resident James Barker, the complaint argues that St. Clair Place has long been plagued by crimes of neglect. Of faulty doors that allow non-residents inside, that lead to "sexual activity in fire escapes" and "drugs in stairwells." Security cameras are faulty. A back entrance door, one that apparently cost $10,000 to replace, has been inoperable for two years.

Floyd and Barker, as backed up in interviews on Wednesday, are also concerned about finances. For years, they both allege, landlords Bart Stein and Angela Koncz have been charging tenants like them excessive late fees, month after month, even when missed rent was paid up. (And, and in Koncz's case, a accusations of tax evasion.)

Barker, a retiree in his late sixties, said that, it happened to him from 2021 to 2023. On April 11, 2022, he was charged $242 for rent plus late fees. He paid up, yet continued to receive charges—typically a $1 a day—until April 30.

Built in 1978, the 200-unit complex has since served renters 62 and over, mostly those on disability and receiving Section 8 vouchers from the federal government.

And since the nineties, HUD has stipulated that Section 8 leasers must follow Model Lease law, which includes a section regulating how landlords dole out late fees. Also, the agreement reads, "the landlord may not terminate [a rental] agreement for failure to pay late charges." Which, according to Floyd and Barker, has happened at St. Clair.

As for quality of life issues, the Cleveland Department of Public Health lists 20 complaints at St. Clair going back to July 2020, including seven for insects and rodent infestation; four for garbage pickup; two for indoor air quality; and four for general health conditions.

All allegations, including the rent late fee controversy, the landlords denied in a legal response on February 12. After Legal Aid and the Tenants Association filed a request for a hearing in March, the landlords responded with a request for a preliminary injunction on April 5, a legal strategy typically used to derail a lawsuit before its heard by a court.

"They filed that brief in response," Anna Seballos, a Legal Aid paralegal, told Scene on Wednesday. "But as of today, there's still caution tape covering the doors. It doesn't appear that there'd be anything to prevent unwanted visitors from entering."

After a light protest and series of interviews with media, Floyd took Scene inside St. Clair Place to put visuals to his legal complaint.

The lounge area, where some socialize and others pay rent on an HP desktop computer Floyd nicknamed "dinosaur," is sparsely-filled: over there, some vending machines. A stack of boxes. Folding chairs and tables. A ping-pong table that, Floyd said, has been broken since 2022. "Ain't nobody gonna play no ping pong on that thing," Floyd said. "Dumb as a (expletive), man."

Floyd walked through a hallway where wet paint was drying, through a caution tape chain warning tenants about a "new door." "Ain't no new door," Floyd said, as he opened the back entrance mentioned in the lawsuit. He shut the door, then attempted to open it with his fob. It stayed shut. "See?" Floyd said. "I told you."

"All we want is an operating building," Floyd said, back in the lounge. He looked around the room. "I mean, all this right here shouldn't be. We shouldn't have all these chairs and all mismatched (expletive). It's ridiculous."

Source: Cleveland Scene - St. Clair Place Apartment Residents Say Landlords Have Let Building Fall Into Dangerous Disrepair