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Pests and mold: undesirable roommates


Patricio Carrera
Shoot taken into one of the apartments, showing clear signals of wearing.

Patricio Carrera
Special for Washington's Voz
07/29/2005

The red-hot Sun did not prevent the march of dozens of tenants protesting their landlords at “University Landing Apts.” in the Langley Park, Silver Spring area, where according to some of the tenants there is an infestation of bedbugs, cockroaches, mice, and mould, which is affecting the units they occupy.

“When we call the administrative office for repairs or to request an exterminator, they do not comply with our requests despite the fact that we pay top rent which is raised every year,” complaint some tenants while they shouted, with signs in their hands: “If there are bedbugs, there is no rent.”

The lack of compliance from the alleged responsibles of this poor housing conditions, located at 1017 Merrimac Drive, in Silver Spring, motivated the coordinated response from “Casa de Maryland,” the minorities Hispanic advocacy organization whose lawyers will provide the residents legal advise to take the owner of the units Steve Stavrou to the Maryland court.

“I have lived in these apartments for over 5 years and it is always the same story, I never get the help I request; I can not stand the roaches and bedbugs that swarm my apartment anymore,” said Lucía Hernández, aggravated by the administrators alleged indifference.

“We pay too much to be treated as beggars,” yelled Enice, from Casa de Maryland, grabbing her son with one hand and a jar filled with roaches on the other, as a proof of the problem.

In addition to the case, there is a complaint that some of the protest organizers have received eviction notifications, like the case of Laura Pinto, who was notified about the termination of her lease contract because she lives in the apartment with her daughter who was not declared in the list of tenants when the contract was first signed.

Inn the case of Lucía Hernández, she is in line to be evicted because according to the property manager she plays music loudly in the apartment, “which is no true,” said Hernández who considers this to be a retaliation for denouncing the problem.

The tenants pay $825,00 for a one bedroom apartment and $950 for a two bedroom one, where there have been found “large numbers of cockroaches, bedbugs and mice. There is also a serious lack of safety and security around the buildings, dishwashers and ovens that don't work, and in general a group of housing units in bad shape with lack of the sanitation essentials,” said the Casa de Maryland leaders, who also said they had verified the the existence of the problems.

Attorney Steve Smitson, from Casa de Maryland, said that despite the fact that the owner of the apartments gets back millions of dollars by “tax Credit” for the maintenance of the property, he does not invest in repairs, which he thinks is abusive to the tenants, most of them Hispanics, who deserve to live in a healthy environment.”

Council member Will Campos was also present at the protest rally. He let the press organizations present know that he will seek an explanation from the owner for what is going on and offered to send inspectors as soon as possible to investigate the veracity of the complaints.