MESQUITE, Texas — At a time when quality, affordable housing for low-income people is at a premium, residents of Hillcrest Apartments fight to rid their homes of deplorable living conditions and avoid their displacement following the filing of a lawsuit by the City of Mesquite against the owners of the 350-unit apartment complex, alleging at least 30 code violations.
MESQUITE, Texas — At a time when quality, affordable housing for low-income people is at a premium, residents of Hillcrest Apartments fight to rid their homes of deplorable living conditions and avoid their displacement following the filing of a lawsuit by the City of Mesquite against the owners of the 350-unit apartment complex, alleging at least 30 code violations.
In advance of a June 10 deadline requiring the complex owners to repair all reported violations, the Hillcrest Union intervened in the City’s lawsuit to represent the tenant community’s rights as the City and the property owners assess whether repairs were completed and are in accordance with state, federal, and municipal standards.
“The Hillcrest Union is concerned about the complex owner’s failure to make any substantive progress with repairs, as the conditions they are living in have mostly stayed the same,” says Supawon Lervisit, an attorney with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas’ Community Revitalization Project. “They’re also concerned about the lack of working central air conditioning as the summer approaches,”
Legal Aid filed the lawsuit on June 1 against the owners on behalf of its client, Hillcrest Union, a group of tenants who reside at the Hillcrest Apartments. The Hillcrest Union maintains that residents’ health and safety has been harmed by the lack of response to many requests to repair conditions existing at the property.
“We’ve spent years complaining about repairs that need to be made at Hillcrest,” says Roderick Williams, a member of Hillcrest Union. “We want to join in the City’s lawsuit to not only see the repair process through, but also to help us stay in our homes and not have to find another place to live when affordable apartments are so hard to find.”
Among other things, the lawsuit seeks injunctive relief aimed at protecting the tenant community’s economic interests and civil rights.
