Problem-plagued Kansas City apartment complex sued over ‘uninhabitable conditions’
Residents at a sprawling apartment complex in Kansas City have joined a class-action lawsuit demanding owners and management make improvements to stop the property’s constant pest infestations, mold, leaks and collapsing ceilings, among other problems.
Tenants are demanding a court order that requires Stonegate Meadows Apartments, a 366-unit complex about two miles east of Arrowhead Stadium, to clean its property and pay residents for damages and violations to their rights as tenants and consumers.
Two of the former residents named in the lawsuit, Roosevelt Price and Michele Williams, previously told The Star they had to relocate their family of five twice due to serious issues in previous units. In their third unit, they still experienced problems, including living for weeks without hot water.
“We have lived in uninhabitable homes for years,” Price said in a news release about the lawsuit. “My family lived in three different units at Stonegate, and each apartment was unlivable. We complained and complained, but Stonegate never changed how they did business. Enough is enough.”
The Heartland Center for Jobs & Freedom is representing tenants in the suit, and organized with them earlier this year to send a letter to regarding “unsafe, unsanitary and uninhabitable conditions” at the complex.
P.K. Law Group, a personal injury firm based in Kansas City, has also filed multiple, seperate lawsuits on behalf of Stonegate Meadows tenants.
“Unfortunately, our clients and other residents at this property have suffered through inhabitable living conditions and have been forced to live in squalor, some for several years,” said attorney Phillip Strozier. “There have been numerous issues at Stonegate Meadows, for quite some time and the residents have been severely impacted by the conditions that plague this property.”
In January, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver sent a letter to the property’s owners saying the complaints from residents raise significant concerns about property ownership and management.
Police have also investigated two killings at the complex so far this year.
The property is owned by Stonegate Meadows Apartments LLC and run by Elite Management Group LLC, a New Jersey-based company. Tenants are also suing previous property owners and managers. Apartment offices and management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since December 2019, city inspectors have identified hundreds of violations at the property. The Kansas City Health Department also revoked the property’s rental license twice.
Many of the units at Stonegate Meadows qualify for Section 8 housing, meaning the government subsidizes many expenses so that tenants can pay reduced rent. Because of the conditions, local housing authorities have refused to pay rent on behalf of Section 8 recipients at Stonegate Meadows.
Current and former residents say the money Stonegate Meadows receives from the government hasn’t been reinvested in the property, leaving them in dismal living conditions.
“Stonegate is publicly subsidized and is supposed to provide affordable housing to low-income Kansas Citians,” said John Bonacorsi, an attorney and director of Heartland’s Safe Homes for All program, in a news release about the class action lawsuit. “Instead, it has exploited vulnerable tenants, and destroyed hundreds of units of affordable housing in the process.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2023 at 8:48 AM.
