‘They don’t care’: Tenants without water for days at Kansas City apartment complex
On Friday, the water went out in Gabriel Clark’s apartment.
He spent an unpleasant evening without tap water, showers, and toilet flushes, but he assured himself it was only for a short time. Then the sun came up, and it was Saturday. Then Sunday.
Wednesday, he looked out his window at the Waldo Heights Apartments near 81st and Campbell streets and watched city employees dig in the complex’s courtyard as he waited for water to flow from his faucets again.
Workers are here now, he said, but tenants were left without help until crews arrived Monday. Management, he said, was impossible to reach. No emails or phone calls.
Clark called the apartment’s office Monday morning and asked, “What’s the plan?” He was told the problem would be fixed soon. In the meantime, they left three cases of water in the lobby for the affected three buildings, with roughly 40 units each. Two more days passed without bottled water.
The final straw, Clark said, came Wednesday when he called the complex’s office to ask if he would still be charged the entire month’s rent and water despite his unit being uninhabitable. He said he was told, “Yes.”
Other tenants inside the waterless units feel just as frustrated as Clark, saying they’ve received little help from management. Many say problems at Waldo Heights began long before their sinks quit running.
Pests, unrepaired damage and a lack of security plague tenants, according to residents who spoke to The Star.
Landmark Realty, a San Francisco-based company that owns the complex, operates at least 11 other properties in the Kansas City area. Landmark did not answer The Star’s requests for comment Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, conversation in the entryway stopped as the sound of running water filled the room. Tenants ran to their units to turn on their sinks and see if their suspicions were correct.
“It’s back on,” someone yelled with excitement from down the hall.
Though water was finally restored to the complex after five days of waiting, tenant Valiera Brooks Davis said the complex has a long way to go before it does right by its occupants.
“They just don’t care,” she said. “If they would have some sort of compassion – they’re not reaching out.”
‘Fed up’
“I’m fed up with this place,” tenant LeAndrea Williams said, dropping her hands at her side. She’d been trying to get in contact with Landmark Realty with little luck. The property manager has also communicated very little about the situation, she says.
She called to complain about the lack of water the day after it went out, but workers didn’t start fixing the issue until the weekend was over. When the cases of water were left in the lobby, she didn’t receive word until they were gone.
“They could’ve called everybody that was affected,” she said. “They have all our email addresses.”
Williams said the message being sent is clear: Her landlords don’t care about their tenants.
“They have paying people who live here,” Williams said. “For them to show us this total disrespect, disregard … how would you like it if you were living here and had no water?”
Brooks Davis, also a leader with housing advocacy group KC Tenants, knocked on other tenants’ doors over the weekend, talking to residents and organizing action steps. She said many of her neighbors don’t have anywhere else to go. Some are sick and on dialysis.
“They put profit over people,” she said. “They care less about us.”
Clark said he’s thankful to have family nearby so he can shower and use the bathroom, but he knows occupants of the other affected buildings aren’t so lucky. Many have been stuck in their units without water to flush their toilets.
“I can’t imagine the smell,” he said. “It’s terrible.”
The least management could’ve done, he says, is provide water jugs or open up an empty unit so people can use the restroom.
Mice, roaches and more
While he sees the lack of water in the units as egregious, Clark said he’s dealt with problems at his apartment the entire time he’s lived there.
He moved into Waldo Heights two years ago and says he’s had to handle pest control himself. During his first year at the complex, he says, he caught eight mice in his unit.
Trash piles up in the hallways, with bins rarely being emptied. Non-residents sleep, even urinate, in stairwells, and cockroaches are a recurring issue.
“A lot of people living in these units that are low-income or don’t have the resources probably feel trapped,” he said.
Clark said a Waldo Heights building that burned down in 2020 was left sitting on the property in shambles for several months.
Brooks Davis says that if management and ownership would have responded to the problem right away, water could’ve been restored much sooner.
Moving forward, she hopes Landmark will have more compassion toward its residents, addressing issues swiftly and taking complaints seriously.
Until then, the resident of five years says she’ll continue to advocate for her neighbors. The union organizer calls herself, “the neighborhood watch.”
“They’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said.
Kansas City’s Healthy Homes, a rental inspection program, and KC Water, the city’s water services, also did not respond to The Star’s request to provide more details about the situation.