‘I just want them to care’: 2nd tenant speaks out against apartment building’s leaking roof

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO) - It’s a problem we first told you about back in January.

A roof needing repair at the Clarkwood Greens Apartments in Warrensville Heights caused a woman’s ceiling to cave in.

One month later, the 19 Troubleshooters learned not only is the issue unresolved, it’s affecting another tenant.

Three weeks ago, a hole in Jeannette Jenkins’s ceiling was flooding her bedroom.

There was so much water, it sounded more like a shower rather than a leak.

Fast forward to Tuesday, things looked more dry, but the hole was still there, and she still had to dump buckets of water out of her apartment multiple times a day.

Jenkins says this has been going on since October of 2021. She’s got the email receipts to prove it.

She tried to put her money in escrow, but she says the judge dismissed her case, telling her the property management can’t fix the roof in the wintertime and advising her to move.

The problem with that, she says, is her 3-year-old child has Autism, which complicates things.

“You can’t just rumble their surroundings like that,” said Jenkins. “You have to do things really gently. So it wasn’t very easy for me to just pick up my stuff and move.”

So when will the roof be fixed?

We asked the property managers, Integra Affordable Management, ourselves.

They emailed us back this statement: “We are aware of the roof issues that have occurred in Ms. Jenkins’ apartment. We have made several attempts to rectify this issue. We have offered Ms. Jenkins the option to transfer to another unit or to be let out of her lease which she has refused. We’ve also given her a sizable roof concession that she receives each month, which she agreed to in court We understand the huge inconvenience that this has caused. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of our roofers’ availability as well as weather conditions. Meanwhile, we are working diligently to replace her roof as soon as possible.”

You can bet the 19 Troubleshooters will stay on Integra Affordable Management until the roof is fixed.

We also heard from the Warrensville Heights Building Department, which confirmed it cited the property managers several times and summoned them to court in November and December of 2022.

They released this statement to us, “The City of Warrensville Heights is sensitive to the problems faced by the residents of this apartment. We have tried to bring a housing violation case against the apartment owner of this unit. However, we have been thwarted by the system. In order to move forward with a case, the court requires three items:

• Perfect service
• The owner’s social security number
• The owner’s birthdate.

We have tried on repeated attempts to get this information from the owner, his lawyer or through the court without remedy. The Bedford Court has told us on numerous occasions a case cannot move forward without the owner’s social security number and birthdate. This is a dilemma and the system is failing the residents of our community. If an individual alludes the system there is not any recourse to bring him to justice. We are aware this is a similar issue for several of the first suburb communities. The City of Warrensville Heights stands ready to hold up its end of the process. We just need a system that allows us to do just that.”

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