The Jones Walker apartment complex in Fort Myers has been ground zero in a battle between residents living in deplorable conditions, the City of Fort Myers Code Enforcement Board and the New Jersey-based company that owns the 80-unit housing development located at 2909 Blount Street.
Fort Myers City Councilman Johnny Streets held an informational meeting, Monday, with residents and public officials to touch base on the situation and to try to come up with a plan of action.
About 20 Jones Walker apartment complex residents sat in the pews of the St. Phillip CME Church to talk about their living conditions and to hear Streets talk about what is being done to better their circumstances.
For years, tenants have been living with broken appliances and windows, faulty plumbing that has caused holes in ceilings and walls, rampant mold, and rodent and insect infestations.
The owners of the apartment complex, Tree Top Development LLC, have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for code violations and at different times have had contractors on-site to fix the problems.
Last year at a special code enforcement board meeting held to address the violations at Jones Walker, residents said contractors were doing cosmetic fixes like painting over mold and applying drywall to rotted walls to mask issues before code enforcement inspections.
During Monday’s meeting, a resident said she has not seen a contracting crew on-site since December 2018. Residents were saying many of the apartments have not been touched, and remain in terrible conditions.
Some residents received housing vouchers last year from the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development to relocate, but in a memo about Monday’s meeting, Streets wrote that HUD rejected providing additional vouchers.
Streets said he held the meeting to hear from tenants about what is going on and to offer solutions to help. He recommended for residents to identify common goals to work toward and to organize.
Streets said all people deserve to live with dignity, and he will try everything in his power to help the residents of Jones Walker to live in dignified conditions.
