After apartment roof collapse, man says his replacement unit is 'living hell'
DETROIT (FOX 2) - "You can find an empty house and it will be in better shape than this."
Melvin Mattison and his mother may look familiar. Last July FOX 2 showed you how Detroit firefighters rescued them from Village Square Apartments after piles of shingles sitting on the roof were unevenly distributed, causing the collapse. His 90-year-old mom had to be pulled from a window.
Landlord Jason Dean, who FOX 2 spoke to July 8 right after it happened put the displaced tenants up in a hotel for one night.
After that they were on their own.
Mattison says one month later they were finally placed in another Village Square Apartment on Santa Maria, but in a different building, which he describes as his "personal hell."
"They moved me here but this is in worse shape than that was. Everything straight over there - over here it's like they stuck us someplace," Mattison said.
Some of the things they are dealing with include a broken heater in his elderly mom's bedroom, two burners out on stove, broken garbage disposal, basically all of the doors need to be fixed, forced to constantly plunge the shower and the smell of sewage always seeps in.
"But I'm still paying $800 a month."
The Mattisons are up to date on their rent but no matter how much they complain, Mattison said nothing gets fixed.
FOX 2 was unable to reach the landlord, Jason Dean, but his new property manager Sabrina claims she just learned of their problems.
FOX 2: "That was July it's been what, five months?"
"We've had two property managers since then," she said. "What I'm doing is closing the office tomorrow to go through everything. I just took over and I want to make sure everything is taken care of."
Mattison says it's about time - no one deserves to live like this.
"It's only right to give me what I paid for," Mattison said.
As of now the city says the building with the roof collapse is still deemed uninhabitable. We are told that the landlord, Jason Dean, is still rehabbing it.