Mableton renters continue to decry apartment conditions

Community activists, residents, and concerned citizens gathered this week to protest the inhumane living conditions at apartment complexes in the Riverside area. This is not their first protest and will not be their last until something is done to address these issues that impact families who are forced to live in subhuman conditions.’

Led by Dr. Ben Williams, president of the Cobb chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Monica DeLancey of We Thrive at Riverside, the group demanded that something be done to address the living conditions that many residents are subjected to under apartment management that they equate to slumlords. For years, residents have complained about unsafe living conditions, including rodents, insects, and mold, at apartment complexes in south Cobb.

Williams said residents in Riverside aren’t getting a fair shake from their landlords. “The conditions in which they live, the conditions for which they pay rent, don’t match. It seems as though more money goes to the apartment ownership than the suitable housing that all of them are entitled to.”

Williams also cited the continued frustration among residents about living conditions saying, “So often it is like a cry in the wilderness. This is not our first visit or involvement in the apartments over here in Riverside.”

Alison Johnson of the Atlanta-based Housing Justice League also participated in the press conference saying, “We have to have stronger tenant protections. We have to force those landlords to come to the table and make good. It’s our money that feeds the landlords. So, we deserve a safe, decent place to live, and so do our children.”

Residents shared their concerns regarding unfit apartment units that included broken appliances that led to fires, mold, rodents, missing ramps for the handicap, the quality and safety of their drinking water and more.

Johnson blames absentee landlords and their lack of accountability for problems that plague the Riverside apartment community and the entire state. “We do have a crisis … where we have allowed corporate landlords to use this state as a playground on poor people’s backs.”

Former Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Boyce was constantly in the area inspecting the conditions and demanding changes after issues were brought to his attention. It is unclear what if anything, has been done by his successor, Lisa Cupid. Residents say they have not seen Cupid, even though they have complained mercilessly to her and the rest of the board about their apartment problems.

Following the ongoing complaints, the Board of Commissioners approved the adoption of a new program in 2022 for regular inspections for apartment complexes, but it has no teeth and does not benefit people that are living under these conditions on a daily basis. The ordinance gives apartment owners and managers four years to hire an independent certified inspector to examine 25% of their units per year until all units in a complex have been inspected over the course of that time. After four years, failure on the part of the owner or managers could result in the loss of a property owner’s certification.

Dasmen Residential is the owner of several of the apartments with the biggest issues within the Riverside community including Residence at Riverside Road and Silver Creek Crossings. 

One of the voices that continue to raise these issues is tenant’s rights activist and founder of We Thrive on Riverside Monica DeLancy.

DeLancy has been active in raising issues about the conditions and said she is being retaliated against by Dasmen and that they are attempting to evict her from her home due to her advocacy on the issues within the community. DeLancy has a case pending in court after her landlord refused to extend her lease and stopped accepting her rental payments.

Cobb SCLC field director, Rich Pellegrino, pointed to the barbaric practice of landlords of putting residents’ items on the street when evicting them from the “deplorable conditions” at the apartments. 

With this area now coming under the new city of Mableton, some say code enforcement of these properties are subject to increased security by the new government while others say that the properties are in such desperate need of full renovations that the patchwork owners have offered in the past can no longer match the repair needs of their apartments. 

Until Mableton’s government is in place, and it is functioning as a city, the county will continue to provide code enforcement for the area.