AKRON, Ohio — The sentiments among residents in Akron’s Timber Top Apartments have grown from frustration to mobilization.
“We are fed up with this, we want change, and this is the first step,” Jesse Reed said.
By now, many know the issues plaguing the apartment complex are not new; from a deadly carbon monoxide leak, a fire that left dozens misplaced, heating issues, and staircases falling while tenants are walking on them, News 5 has reported on the litany of problems at Timber Top all within the past year.
Residents said that many problems are consistently overlooked by the property’s management, and now tenants are banding together.
“I want change,” Aleia Edwards said. “If I’m going to live somewhere and I’m going to pay as much as they are expecting me to pay to be able to stay here, I want to be able to live in a place that’s suitable for the amount the money they are charging us to live.”
Thursday, we were there as residents held a meeting to learn their rights and create a tenants union.
“The staircase thing that happened was the last straw for many tenants at this location,” Reed said. “It’s frustrating that we have to live in conditions less than substantial for what we’re paying.”
Lauren Green-Hull, with Fair Housing Contact Service, said the agency has been receiving an influx of calls from residents asking for services and support at Timber Top.
Tenants said they refuse to stay quiet and hope this meeting will be the start of the change they want to see.
“Not just knowing what’s going on but trying to help us come up with resolutions to help to be able to fix the problems that we are dealing with there in Timber Top, and I think that with this meeting here and everything we had here with legal aid, I think we will be able to come up with something,” Edwards said.
RELATED: Residents at Timber Top Apartments concerned about safety after stairs collapse
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