TOLEDO, Ohio — Call 11 for Action continues our series on a troubled apartment complex where the conditions are described as "inhumane."
But what we found extends well beyond one building in Toledo.
The complaints reach across the country and paint a picture of low-income residents struggling to get help from the government to hold owners of the complexes accountable.
Willie Barber, Robert Valdez and Mae Howard are three residents of the Covenant House on N. Erie St. in Toledo who have described their struggles to Call 11 for Action.
"It's bad, it's just bad," said Barber. "I got pictures where the roaches have a party."
Valdez demonstrated how he keeps roaches at bay in his apartment with a solution he said he sprays along the floorboards in his kitchen.
"Two, three times a month with this. Even if you don't see the roaches, stay on it," he said.
Howard documented a toilet she said was broken in July in a video to her family, which she said was proof of the trouble she was going through at Covenant House.
"Now, I've been going on two days, going on three. I can't use my bathroom," she said.
Howard was confident the toilet and other issues would continue going unfixed.
She, Valdez and Barber are among thousands of residents living in apartment buildings owned by Ohio-based Millennia Companies who have complained about deplorable conditions.
Call 11 for Action found serious, even deadly issues at Millennia's properties across the United States including in Kansas City, Missouri; Galveston, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee.
WTOL 11 sister station THV11 reported three people were killed at the Shorter College Garden Apartments, a Millennia complex, during an explosion in 2022, days after residents said they reported a gas smell.
"The family wants answers from the owners and city leaders on why this happened," said attorney Terris C. Harris of The Cochran Firm.
Residents filed a $5 billion class-action lawsuit against Millennia for, "failing to provide safe premises and repair dangerous conditions when notified about those conditions."
"They failed to do the maintenance in which they needed the apartments. They failed to have the apartments in a habitable position," said Harris.
The suit seeks to divide the $5 billion among Millennia's 86,000 residents, with $60,000 going to each resident of a Millennia property across the country.
That would include Howard, Valdez and Barber.
WTOL 11 sister station ABC24 reported seniors in Memphis went to code enforcement about two senior-living properties owned by Millennia in 2022.
"We got Godzilla rats, mutant roaches, the black mold is atrocious," Memphis Towers tenant Gertrude Dennard said.
Residents of Serenity Towers also complained of no air conditioning or clean water, forcing Millennia into environmental court.
"It's muddy brown like it came out the Mississippi…so we can't cook with it, can't drink it," said Dennard.
In 2022, according to the National Housing Law Project, a tenant's union in Kansas City demanded the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to cut ties with Millennia and stop providing the company federal money for 'neglecting them.'
They demanded HUD Sec. Marcia Fudge launch an investigation, not just in Kansas City, but for all Millennia properties, and address dire conditions and racial disparities.
Fudge promised to investigate and hold Millennia accountable. A year later, the Millennia Resistance Campaign, a group of tenants, advocates and lawyers said HUD back peddled on that promise.
Call 11 for Action asked HUD about the results of its investigation but did not get a response as of Tuesday.
The Houston Chronicle also published a series of stories in 2021, called "A Living Hell" in which it detailed a matrix of federal, state and local systems that dropped the ball and allowed tenants to live in poor conditions.
Valdez said the buck stops with Millennia and the government, which gives Millennia money.
"The people that get these checks, from the government, that own all these places, they need to come in here and lock this place down."
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