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Former Forest Cove residents seek legal action
For years, people who lived in the now demolished Forest Cove Apartments have complained about the living conditions they endured. Although the complex is gone, people who once called the complex home. Are now seeking legal action against the company who ran the complex.
ATLANTA - Former residents of the now-demolished Forest Cove Apartments in Atlanta’s Thomasville Heights neighborhood are preparing to take legal action, saying years of neglect left them in dangerous and unsanitary living conditions.
What they're saying:
Attorney Benjamin Crump met with former tenants Wednesday night during a town hall meeting in the neighborhood. He told the crowd the conditions they endured were unacceptable.
"You would not want your worst enemy living in the conditions they lived in. The mold, the mildew and so forth," Crump said.
Crump said his team is reviewing possible claims, including fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of contract.
"When you think about it, it's fraudulent misrepresentation. It's breach of contract that was common to all of the citizens and to the United States government Housing and Urban Development," Crump said. "They were getting these checks. There was a contract that existed that they were going to provide these services and obviously, we know they were breaching those contracts to everyone that was living in that complex."
Attorney Quinton Washington added that a conspiracy claim under federal racketeering laws could also be considered.
"A conspiracy or conspirators effort of Rico Claims, that is still something valid that we are looking into, that maybe able to benefit these residents," Washington said.
Former tenants described years of unsafe and unsanitary conditions before the city ordered the complex demolished last year. Shemika Mack, who lived at Forest Cove for nine years, said her apartment had broken windows, holes in the floors, and flooding that left her walls damaged.
"I had busted windows. My floors had big holes in it. My apartment had flooded, to where it messed up my walls. I had to stick big comforters in the wall, just to keep the rats off," Mack said.
She said tenants complained repeatedly but were ignored.
"Everyone did. All of us. It was to the point that residents were throwing their rats traps in front of the rent office," Mack said.
The city of Atlanta filed a class action lawsuit against Millennia Property Management two years ago, but residents say they want their own day in court. For many, the stigma of living at Forest Cove still lingers.
"Our kids get, they really get singled out from where we come from. They look at us like, 'Oh, y'all coming from Forest Cove, they're regular kids just like everybody else,'" Mack said.
The other side:
Millennia Property Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Source: FOX 5's Larry Spruill attended a meeting of former residents of the now-demolished Forest Cove Apartments in Atlanta’s Thomasville Heights neighborhood for this article.