DICKINSON, Texas – Tenants at a Dickinson apartment complex complain they’ve been living without hot water for weeks.
Residents at Creekside Apartments said they have running water, but it’s been cold for more than two weeks.
“I gotta work at two today and I can’t even take a shower today before I go to work,” said Freddy Ramirez, who has a 15-month-old child living in his apartment.
Some residents said they’ve been subjected to taking cold showers on cold days, while others have been boiling pots of water just to take a bath.
Dickinson Mayor Sean Skipworth said the apartment complex has been on the city’s radar since they suffered damage during Hurricane Harvey.
“These people don’t have hot water right now because the boilers are leaking gas to the point where the place would explode if there was a fire,” Mayor Skipworth said. “And we have had fires very recently.”
Kayla Layer is one of the residents displaced by the Nov. 8 fire.
“I’m currently homeless staying in a motel until my money runs out,” Layer said fighting back tears. “I just want answers like ‘why were we treated this way?’ Like why can’t we have a safe healthy place to live?”
Other residents said they’re living with mold, roaches and some without heat. KPRC2 first visited the property in May when residents complained of raw sewage causing odor issues.
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Mayor Skipworth said the list of issues at the complex are lengthy and may be beyond repair to bring up to code by Nov. 27, the deadline given to the property owners. The city’s code officials in a Sept. 29 meeting said every building at the complex is in a state of disrepair and below the minimum standards for continued use and occupancy.
“There are too many problems for us to even list,” said Mayor Skipworth. “There was a very, very lengthy gigabytes long PowerPoint presentation that was presented to the city about this and that’s what led to that condemnation proceedings to begin.”
The city gave the property owners 60 days to make repairs or get abated.
“It’s not acceptable. No one should live like this. The management, shame on the management for letting this go on this way. You have to address problems,” the mayor added.
Families told KPRC2 many of them have nowhere else to go because they’re either low-income, are an ex-felon, disabled or simply can’t afford to move.