Global Ministries Foundation

Holding signs that read “Hold Slumlords Accountable” or signs calling for inspections of various HUD-subsidized apartments, members of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MSPJC) protested outside Serenity Towers on Highland Wednesday afternoon to bring awareness to the plight of Memphians living in substandard housing.

Serenity Towers, a senior living apartment complex, is owned by Global Ministries Foundation (GMF), a religious nonprofit that operates several apartment complexes subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Since last year, several of GMF’s properties have been found to contain black mold, bed bugs, plumbing leaks, and structural issues.

The nonprofit lost its HUD funding for two of those properties — Warren Apartments and Tulane Apartments — earlier this year for failing to correct violations. Those residents are supposed to be receiving HUD vouchers to move into new housing, but one Warren Apartments resident — Cynthia Crawford — at the protest on Wednesday said the residents are at a “standstill,” still living in mold-infested apartments, as they await those vouchers.

Serenity Towers has received several code enforcement violations for issues with bed bugs, and the property is being inspected again this week. GMF purchased the Serenity property in March 2014, and a spokesperson for the nonprofit, who asked to remain anonymous, said the group has spent more than $200,000 on efforts to eradicate bed bugs at Serenity. She says roughly 95 units there still have bed bug issues, but GMF has ordered new mattresses, box springs, and bed frames and will be replacing residents’ beds at no charge. The beds should arrive this week.

But MSPJC executive director Brad Watkins said, with only 50 city code inspectors on the force, the department is stretched too thin. Watkins suggested that the city renew its reserve code enforcement officers program, which allows volunteer citizens to assist with code inspections. Watkins said MSPJC could oversee the formation of tenant-based associations at all HUD-subsidized properties, and each of those associations could have a few volunteer reserve code inspectors to hold landlords accountable.

“This would be a godsend to code enforcement. They would have more eyes and ears on the ground,” Watkins said.

He said the center has reached out to code enforcement, but the department hasn’t responded to their request for the program’s renewal. The Memphis City Council passed an ordinance allowing for reserve code officers more than a year ago.

Watkins said other GMF-owned properties and HUD-subsidized properties across the city should be inspected, and if code enforcement is stretched too thin, volunteer tenant inspectors could assist.

“We have seen the living conditions that tenants have been made to live in by Rev. Richard Hamlet [of GMF] at Warren,Tulane, and now here at Serenity Towers, but what of the tenants at his other properties like Madison Tower and Bend Tree? What of the other HUD-subsidized properties owned by other companies like Peppertree or Tillman Cove? We are on the verge of a housing crisis and the Peace and Justice Center stands ready to aid in the solutions,” Watkins said.

Serenity Towers resident Gail Clark was standing outside the complex, waiting on a ride, while the protest was ongoing. She said her experience with management at Serenity had been largely positive, and she feels they’ve been responsive to residents’ concerns. She said they’d recently formed a tenants’ association to assist with critical needs.

A Warren Apartments tenant will appeal what she says is a wrongful eviction following an altercation with a property manager that stemmed from a years-long black mold infestation and neglect on behalf of LEDIC Management and the Global Ministries Foundation (GMF).

“I have been dealing with black mold since day one,” said Warren Apartments Tenant Association co-founder Cynthia Crawford, who moved into the complex with her two children in February 2013. “I went to the maintenance office and asked [about it]. They told me to use bleach. Every time I did, it came back. In June of 2015, the previous property manager had a code enforcement retiree inspect the apartment, who said it was black mold.”

Joshua Cannon

Warren Apartments

Crawford’s complaints come as a voice among a chorus of tenants at the Warren and Tulane apartment complexes. Despite GMF spending more than $300,000 on repairs, both complexes failed twice last year to meet the minimum score of 60 required to pass a federal inspection — falling eight points below at 52. Hundreds of residents from the Section 8 housing will now be forced to relocate as the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cracks down on GMF for failure to maintain livable conditions.

LEDIC did not respond to a request for an update on the relocation. Residents will receive a relocation voucher. HUD officials met with residents last week and said the process would likely begin in March.

GMF is an affordable housing initiative that seeks to provide shelter to low- and moderate-income residents around the United States. GMF CEO Reverend Richard Hamlet proposed a multi-million-dollar rehabilitation program for the two complexes that would use private capital funds. HUD denied the request.

“We’re all on poverty level, but I think we should at least have decent housing,” Crawford said. “We’re not asking for mansions or gold fixtures. We’re just asking for basic, decent housing.”

Three maintenance workers visited Crawford’s unit on Nov. 30th to repair water damage in her bathroom and attend to the mold. Property manager Betsy Waugh entered her apartment around 6:30 p.m., according to Crawford, and asked, “What’s the holdup?” When a senior maintenance attendant told Waugh about the mold, Crawford, unseen in the hallway, allegedly overheard Waugh say, “Don’t say that, just go ahead and cover it up [with sheetrock].”

Waugh, Crawford said, returned an hour later. Waugh allegedly became argumentative and started videotaping Crawford, which led Crawford to “get in [Waugh’s] face and curse her” before asking her to leave the unit. Waugh left and called the police, allegedly claiming Crawford assaulted her, which Crawford says did not occur. A police report was filed, and LEDIC Management issued Crawford a three-day eviction notice on Dec. 2nd. Crawford will appeal the eviction on March 3rd.

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC) helped the Warren Apartments Tenant Association create a strategy to bridge the gap between management and tenants. The Association has 26 members. Members who have spoken up at Shelby County Commission meetings have been threatened with eviction, says MSPJC executive director Brad Watkins.

“As most tenants do not know their rights, many landlords get over on people all the time for things that the law clearly states are landlord responsibilities,” Watkins said.

Renters often mistakenly make verbal agreements, Watkins says. People don’t fully understand their renter’s rights and other resources available to them.

“We see so many cases where if a person had just known what their rights were they could have avoided being taken advantage of by an unethical landlord,” Watkins said.

MSPJC will attempt to change this through their new renters’ rights project. The immediate goal is to train tenants on how to better understand their rights as renters and form their own associations. Watkins would like to create a Memphis Tenants Union.

“We have allowed slumlords to run amok for so long that now all of our chickens are coming home to roost, and Memphis is on the verge of a crisis in affordable housing,” Watkins said.