Apartment dwellers left without walls or stoves after Harvey

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Thursday, October 5, 2017
Apartment dwellers left without walls after Harvey
Neighors at The Legacy apartments say they've been left in deplorable conditions since Harvey.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- "This is what I have to look at if I come in and use the restroom, straight into my kitchen and into the apartment next door."

Sheila Abrahams has a terrible problem.

"It's just not fair," she says.

You might believe your eyes are fooling you when you see it for yourself.

The walls are gone, and you can literally see straight into her neighbor's apartment.

Contractors came in and ripped the walls out after Harvey flooded the Legacy apartments on Lockwood, and they haven't been the same since.

"This is crazy," says Mr. Jackson, a blind resident who lives at the apartments.

His neighbors have described the horrible conditions to him, but that's no surprise to him.

"All the stuff is in the way," Jackson said. "I run into stuff."

Over at Latisha Davis' unit, it only gets worse around dinner time.

"We can't cook, we can't do nothing," Davis said.

The stove and sink were both ripped out, in addition to her walls.

"We just cook noodles, that's all we can eat," Davis said. "We have a microwave that we could just warm up noodles we can't wash the dishes or nothing."

While we were here, neighbor after neighbor came to us, wanting us to see inside their homes.

Residents told Eyewitness News they've already paid rent for last month, and many of them have been denied by FEMA.

But all of them are in the same boat, not able to afford to move.

We went to the landlord for answers, and on the front door of the office is a notice from the city.

The Legacy apartments were written up and ordered to "obtain electrical permits" and "structural permits" on Tuesday.

The landlord told us contractors are working to get the apartments fixed.

She agreed to give residents their deposits back and allow them to leave, but for now these people said they have to make due with what they have.

"I think this is awful," Willie Fagans said. "I'm scared of spiders and the rats and roaches."

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