Disabled DeKalb woman says she been complaining about apartment filth for more than 5 years

A disabled woman says she has been living in a filthy apartment complex for years.

She showed Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes the deplorable conditions inside her Stonecrest apartment.

Fernandes spoke to property managers at Stonecrest Mills Apartment Complex who say they have only been managing the complex for less than a year and they realize some tenants are living in deplorable conditions.

They say they inherited a mess like a trash dumpster that overflows daily, broken mailboxes and trash everywhere.

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Dedra Cash says she believes she’s been smelling mold behind her air conditioner for months.

“There was no filter inside, and it was a pan where somebody had put a pan up under there to catch the water. And I’ve been complaining about it since I’ve been out here, nd it’s going on five-and-a-half years I’ve been out here now,” Cash explained.

She is disabled and says she has several illnesses, making it hard for her to move out of the apartment on a fixed income.

“I had rats in my home, a rat bit a hole in my carpet. It tried to get in the other room, and it’s still in there...I’m just tired, it’s just so much,” she said.

Fernandes saw overflowing trash, boarded-up windows, broken gates, scattered furniture and more. She could barely even get to Cash’s front door.

“I have a handicapped son. He can’t come and visit me because the bushes and all that, and I’m afraid something will crawl in my house,” she said.

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Fernandes walked into the leasing office to get answers from property managers. As they were telling her to contact the corporate office, Cash walked in and said she’d called Channel 2 Action News for help because she’d been complaining for years and got nowhere.

“I don’t know what else to do. I’m just fed up with it. I mean I think we can live decent enough when we’re paying this much money, we ought to be able to live decent and peaceful,” Cash said.

She says that she pays $1,400 per month. When she first moved in, she said her rent was $775.

Fernandes reached out to the corporate office of the management company for a comment, but has not received a response.

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