More than 30 tenants of Parkview Arms apartments received eviction notices last week. Management said it was standard practice, but to some it felt like retaliation for speaking out against what they call unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
Tenants at Parkview Arms apartments in Oxford are again speaking out about what they call unsafe living conditions and mismanagement in the low-income housing complex.
Gary Landrum and Maria Johnson, two tenants of Parkview Arms, first spoke about infestations, broken appliances and other issues at the complex during a June 5 Oxford City Council meeting and asked for action from the city. Days later, both received eviction notices in what Landrum called a retaliatory move for speaking out.
"After the last meeting, the eviction notices started showing up on doors," Landrum said. "And everyone's like, well just because we kind of agreed with the council meeting, now whole breezeways are being evicted because of it?"
Landrum and Johnson both returned to city council at a June 18 meeting to give an update on the situation during public comment.
Lisa Alstott, the on-site manager for the apartments, declined to speak with the Oxford Free Press. She referred to LJF Management, the company which owns the units.
Management says eviction notices are not out of the ordinary
Eviction notices are standard practice for the complex, said Linda Fox, a property manager with LJF. Each tenant who doesn't pay rent on the first day of the month receives a notice after five days, Fox said, and roughly 35 tenants at Parkview Arms got notices this month. The notices give tenants 30 days to take action.
Landrum did not end up owing any rent because of his employment status and is no longer facing eviction. Johnson, meanwhile, has placed her rent in escrow with the county.
While he isn't in immediate danger of losing his unit anymore, Landrum said the tenants need to come together to call for improvements collectively. He met with a legal aid Tuesday who recommended forming a residents council to give tenants more collective power, which Landrum said is needed to face the current management.
Not every tenant sees the issues as systemic, though. Susan Saylor, a resident of Parkview Arms for three years, said at the June 18 city council meeting that she hasn't had any issues in her unit and has worked hard to make it her home. While she did say the community needs to come together, she said she doesn't put blame on any individuals.
"It's been a blessing for me, because I don't know where else I would be," Saylor said.
Pest control still a problem in units
Cockroaches crawl around Maria Johnson's apartment at Parkview Arms in the middle of the day. She says the bugs are inescapable both in her bathroom (left) and in her kitchen (right). Photos by Sean Scott
Johnson, a single mother, lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her three children. She was diagnosed with systemic lupus seven years ago and is no longer able to work due to her symptoms. Since moving in early this year, she says her experience has been a constant battle against cockroaches with little help from property management.
When a fire broke out at another unit on May 28, Johnson said she and other residents gathered outside and talked about the problems they were facing. Bugs, faulty appliances and drug use are all consistent issues throughout the complex, Johnson said. During 2022 city inspections of each Parkview Arms unit, a code enforcement officer for Oxford found smoke alarm violations in a majority of the units.
"I didn't know there was a little ghetto of Oxford," Johnson said. "This kind of broke my heart, honestly, because I didn't know it was here."
Some nights, Johnson said she struggles to reach her bed and needs to sleep on the floor. She often only sleeps for three hours per night as she tries to fend off the pests.
Fox defended LJF's pest control measures. An extermination crew comes once a month to treat effected units, she said, even if those units don't properly prepare for the crew by cleaning. Then, the crew makes notes of any units that weren't prepared for management to keep track of.
One vacant unit at Parkview Arms shown to the Oxford Free Press by a contractor featured new carpeting (left) and a new stove (right). Photos by Sean Scott.
Any time the complex has a vacancy, Fox said the unit is cleaned and painted before new tenants move in. Flooring is replaced "as-needed," Fox said, and appliances are repaired or replaced if they don't work.
In one vacant unit shown to the Free Press by a contractor, all of the carpeting was new. The contractor said the cabinets and bathtub were also refinished, and the stove was new.
However, Johnson said her issues with cockroaches started the day she moved in, and they haven't gone away since.
This month, Fox said she's working to put together a newsletter with information about preventative measures of pest control for residents. When issues arise, Fox said it falls on the community as a whole to address them.
“If you’ve got a problem, something’s causing it," Fox said. "If it’s something we’re doing or not doing, we need to do something. If it’s something they’re doing or not doing, they need to do something … I think the residents need to be proactive, as well.”
Oxford looks toward comprehensive solutions
Chantel Raghu, vice-mayor for Oxford, said the situation at Parkview Arms is just one part of a broader housing issue facing the city. At the June 5 city council meeting, she suggested looking into a chronic nuisance ordinance to hold property managers accountable for repeated calls to emergency services.
In conversations with other leaders around the county, Raghu said she's consistently heard Parkview Arms referred to as the worst Section 8 housing in Butler County.
"We are known around the county for having the worst Section 8 housing," Raghu said at the June 18 council meeting. "That is so embarrassing ... So let's change this. I don't want to have the worst housing situation in the county. That can't happen."
Raghu suggested that having LJF Management install security cameras outside Parkview Arms could help reduce crime and lessen the cost on taxpayers who foot the bill for the Oxford Police Department and EMS services. Beyond Parkview Arms itself, Raghu said she hopes to see ordinances in the next couple of months to protect tenants across the city from predatory landlords.
In the past several weeks, Raghu said she's looked into how other cities protect tenants. She hopes the city will formally research options like establishing a tenant bill of rights and allowing the city to fine landlords who don't make repairs in a timely fashion.
"The people that I talked to are single mothers with young children, they're veterans," Raghu said. "When you think about who lives in Parkview Arms, they deserve the right to have a safe and healthy place to live."
