City Departments Take Action for Tenants at Olive Park Village

Dorri Partain
Managing Editor

Amid buildings damaged by fire, and others with boarded up windows and doors, Olive Park Village tenants have consistently been exposed to dangerous and unsafe living conditions.

During a press conference on Wednesday, November 26 at the site (2310 E. 9th St.), several representatives from City departments spoke about the on-going efforts to work with property owner Millennia to abate unsafe living conditions and a request for the public’s help to identify available housing for Olive Park residents.

“The circumstances at this particular apartment building are unacceptable,” stated Melissa Patterson Hazley, Third District-at-Large City Council representative. “Millennia property owners have demonstrated yet again that they are unwilling to show humanity when they care for their residents. This isn’t the first time, personally, I’ve tried to find ways to hold this particular landlord accountable and those things continue to fall on deaf ears.”

_{A press conference was held at Olive Park Village on Nov. 26 to address living conditions at the site. Speakers included (left to right) Brandon Mason, Neighborhood Legal Services, Melissa Patterson Hazley, City Council Third District-at-Large, Sherae Hunnicutt, City Spokeswoman, and Joe Williamson, Director, Public Safety Task Force.}

Olive Park Village, a complex of townhomes and apartments within the Independence Plaza neighborhood, is owned and operated by The Millennia Companies, with a main office located in Cleveland, Ohio. According to the company’s web page, Millennia owns /operates more than 280 apartment developments in 26 states, housing 86,000 people. Their mission statement offers “Millennia’s development and management teams have preserved affordable housing and transformed communities.”

According to Joe Williamson, director of the City’s Public Safety Task Force, meetings with Millennia’s management team have not led to responsive measures regarding conditions or tenant complaints.

“We’re here to shine a spotlight on the terrible conditions going on here at Olive Park Village,” said Williamson on November 26, “through the mismanagement of Millennia properties which have left several families here in dire and squalor conditions. This property came to our attention through our multidisciplinary Public Safety Task Force, through several complaints, and the Health Department, who has been coming out- multiple occasions- doing inspections, not yielding any long term solutions and abatement of the many violations that left these tenants living in very unsanitary conditions.”

Williamson also thanked all the city departments that have worked to find a solution and stated that due to site conditions, HUD (Housing and Urban Development) subsidy payments to Millennia for Olive Park Village were being discontinued effective December 1.

Brandon Mason, general counsel with Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS), stated he has been working with concerned members of the Independence Plaza Neighborhood Council for the last eleven months to document issues for tenants living in Olive Park Village.

“The ownership group here has taken millions of HUD-backed money from tenants for the purposes of providing clean, safe, affordable housing,” said Mason. “Instead, what they’ve done is taken that money and left its tenants in squalor.”

“We’ve heard reports from residents about rodent infestations, about flooding – leading to dangerous electrical conditions, resulting in electricity being turned off. We’ve heard about mold conditions from residents, where residents were healthy when they moved in, and now suffering mold-induced seizures.”

_{Numerous buildings throughout this complex are boarded up and show signs of deferred maintenance.}

Mason stated that through NLS, he would continue to work with neighbors and city departments to bring litigation against Millennia to try to force change and accountability.

Olive Park Village spans several blocks, bordered by east Ninth street, Olive and Park avenues, to east Seventh street. This complex opened to tenants as Chip Village in October 1973 and was later renamed Olive Park Village. Millennia has owned the complex for nearly ten years.

Following multiple fires at 700-702-704 Olive, that apartment building was demolished by Millennia on Jan. 23 of this year. A fire on October 6, called in at 5:00 a.m. destroyed one unit at 2412 E. 9th St. Firefighters rescued two adults and one child and Millinnia, according to code inspection reports, has made minimal effort to secure the building from entry.

At the time of the press conference, up to 30 families were still living at Olive Park Village, with 24 of those receiving housing assistance. Williamson stated that those families would be issued HUD tenant protection vouchers to cover rent when housing was located.