Warren trailer park conditions have residents, city officials fed up
WARREN, Mich. (FOX 2) - Residents at the Landmark Estates mobile home community in Warren are speaking out about what they call deplorable living conditions.
"A lot needs to be addressed here," said David Denmark. "I feel the owners are denying the fact that they’re responsible.
"Landmark Estates residents are evacuating now because they don’t have access to water, number one, the second is that sewage is coming back up into their homes."
Denmark says, that’s not all.
"There’s so much damage to my home from things mentioned on the list, from rat infestation to negligent management."
Resident Blaer Roberts says he first noticed problems when he moved in two years ago.
"Something made me go to the side of my trailer and look and see what was happening - that’s when I went underneath there and I saw a pool of sewage, raw sewage. I asked for help and I was not getting it."
Roberts says he ended up fixing it himself.
FOX 2 met up with the residents at their homes Thursday — where we also ran into frustrated employees who work at the city’s property maintenance division.
"The management company is responsible for keeping the water in the sewer running in here," said John Impellizzeri, building inspector. "This is a private park. it isn’t fair that the city has to become the management company here."
The city says the management company, called Open Management, is taking some action like clearing out dilapidated units and trash.
But, Impellizzeri says it is not enough.
"I’ve been doing ongoing inspections and troubleshooting problems for two years here," he said. "I found, I don’t know how many water main breaks, how many issues with the sewer system."
In response, the city filed a nuisance abatement complaint.
Warren City Councilmember Angela Rogensues said the move will bring help.
"It will allow the judge, and it will give the city attorney the opportunity to take legal action, because the state does not have strict enough rules that allow us to enforce at a local level," she said.
FOX 2 reached out to Open Management which said it was brought in to oversee repairs in August 2021. It claims the problems were inherited when taking over the property.
In a statement the company says: "We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in our first year of managing this property, and we’re just getting started. We are not complete with our plan, but we successfully remedied all open violations from the city and state, and are now moving into the next phases of improvements."
Rogensues said the residents there deserve more.
"Just because you were living in a manufactured housing community or you are lower income as many of the residents are here, folks deserve to live in conditions that we would all want to live in."
