TOLEDO, Ohio — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur said she wants to see improvements made immediately to the Greenbelt Place Apartments in North Toledo.
The residents are fed up with the unlivable conditions at the apartments, including pest infestations and violence.
You can see remnants of past violence just walking around the complex, as WTOL 11 saw bullet holes in two separate buildings.
There are also not outer doors on the buildings, so anyone can just walk in. That what's where residents say the issues begin.
"The pest problems: the bugs, the mice, nothing is getting better, everything is getting worse," a tenant said.
The residents WTOL spoke with said there are bug and rodent infestations in many apartments, and they stay inside at night worried about the amount of violence in the complex.
Their biggest concerns are the number of shootings there, the lack of maintenance in the apartments that they say lead to safety hazards like loose railings, and the pest infestations.
A video given to us by a tenant shows their stairwell covered in trash with urine and feces at the bottom. Although she spends time cleaning, it doesn't seem to help.
"Some people do care about where they live and some people do keep their place clean, and just because we live in apartments that are low-income doesn't mean we have to live like this," the tenant said.
The conditions have caught the attention of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who is calling on HUD to investigate Greenbelt Place, formally called Cherrywood.
Kaptur says in a statement:
"On behalf of the residents of Cherrywood, our office has requested an onsite inspection by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to immediately assess serious health and safety concerns at the complex and to put in place an immediate plan for corrective action."
Malachia Hart has been in the apartments for less than a year and is already working to move out.
"My first month, my furnace went out and my fridge went out and I had to use a heater. I told them about it and they didn't do anything about it. So I had to use a heater," Hart said.
Hart says it got so cold, she ended up using the oven for heat with a one-year-old in the apartment.
Hart hopes that Congresswoman Kaptur's call for an investigation will help, but it isn't enough to keep her around
WTOL called the apartment complex's office for comment and left a message.