West Jackson residents say water outage has lasted over a month after landlord’s failure to pay bill

By Alex Rozier | Originally published by Mississippi Today

As temperatures climbed into the triple digits on Monday, tenants at the Addison Place Apartments Homes in west Jackson said they haven’t had running water for over a month. JXN Water, the city’s court-appointed drinking water provider, disconnected the complex after the owner accumulated six figures’ worth of water bill debt.

WLBT first reported the disconnection on July 23. Residents who spoke to Mississippi Today on Monday said they haven’t had water for even longer than that.

“You don’t realize how much you need water until you don’t have it,” Trendarius Burns, an Addison Place resident who lives with his three sons, said.

Since the disconnection, Burns said management has brought cases of water to residents — about two a week — and that maintenance workers will come by to pour water into the back of toilets so that they can flush.

But the father, who works at Continental Tires and pays $800 a month for a two-bedroom unit, said he and his children have to go to a friend or family member’s place to take showers. On top of money he’s spending on bottled water, Burns said he’s had to spend a lot more on food — about $40 to $50 a day — because it’s difficult to cook at home. He said he’s planning to move soon.

“They’re some good apartments, we ain’t never had no problem. It’s just the water,” Burns said. “It’s just uncalled for.”

Since last summer, JXN Water has disconnected apartment complexes where owners have accumulated large amounts of debt on their water bill and haven’t cooperated in negotiating a payment plan.

During an Aug. 6 meeting, Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley, who represents the area, brought the matter to the attention of a City Council committee.

“They don’t have running water?” a surprised Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote responded, adding that it was “appalling” an apartment owner would let tenants who pay their rent lose water.

New Jersey-based company Jackson Addison SPV LLC owns the property, according to Hinds County tax records. The complex’s management did not respond to a request for comment. The city of Jackson also did not respond to multiple emails asking about the situation.

Robert Brunson, the city’s manager of Code Enforcement, said at the Aug. 6 meeting that 45 residents at the complex didn’t have water while 16 did. He estimated the complex’s owner owed over $300,000 on its water bill, but that the property manager told him they wanted to dispute the charges. Brunson added his department dealt with other unaddressed issues with the same complex last year.

Despite the public health concern, JXN Water’s general policy is to disclose few details about individual accounts. In this instance, the utility wouldn’t say when it disconnected water to the apartment or how much the owner owes. JXN Water did say Tuesday it has been in contact with the owner’s legal team but “to no avail.”

“There still has not been a payment initiated on the account,” JXN Water spokesperson Aisha Carson said. “There has been meter tampering on the property. So, the water at the property has been shut off several times over the past two months.”

At the City Council meeting in August, Jackson’s Office of Code Enforcement said it was looking to have a hearing on the issue in the city’s environmental court on Aug. 25.

Hartley, the city councilman, said Tuesday it was frustrating how widespread the issue of landlords not providing essential services in Jackson has become. He added that the city is working on a map and tracking the system to rate all of Jackson’s apartments based on inspections to flag potential issues before they arise.

“We’re trying to delineate and find out which (apartment complexes) are more susceptible to putting their occupants into a public health situation,” he said.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article