Residents of apartment buildings in Edgewood and Aberdeen say they’ve been dealing with poor living conditions, including flooding, mold and pests, that have been ignored by landlords. Now, state Del. Andre Johnson says he’s looking for answers.
Johnson’s office said it has been alerted to numerous concerns about Perrywood Garden Apartments in Aberdeen and Windsor Valley Apartments and Village at Lakeview Apartments, both in Edgewood. All three received Housing and Urban Development vouchers for low-income residents living there.
The complaints, Johnson’s office said, are consistent in severity and theme — unresponsive property management, chronic maintenance failures, serious health hazards related to flooding, mold and leaks, and nonfunctioning heating and cooling systems.
Verlene Valentine, who lives at Windsor Valley Apartments, documented the conditions of her home through livestreams on social media. In one of the videos, Valentine was visibly distraught, begging for help as water from her upstairs bathroom spilled from her living room ceiling, flooding the room and ruining her couch.
“I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I can’t keep living like this,” Valentine said in the video. “Would you let your kid pay to live here?”
In another video, she showed her kitchen flooding with dirty water full of rodent feces. She documented the removal of portions of her ceiling that were leaking, exposing black mold and even more rodent feces and sewage from her bathroom.
Valentine’s livestreams also documented tours of her neighbors’ homes, which had similar mold and pest issues. One of the residents showed separations in his walls that were patched because rodents kept getting inside.
Valentine said she stopped paying her rent due to the poor conditions and it wasn’t until after she wrote a letter to Windsor Valley Apartments about maintenance issues that she received an eviction notice. She said the notice prompted her to begin documenting the living conditions as a cry for help.
“It stresses me out,” Valentine said. “I feel like I am being ignored, neglected, and I feel like nothing is going to happen because they don’t care.”
Edwinser Carr, an 11-year resident of Windsor Valley Apartments, voiced similar concerns, outlining instances of neglected maintenance requests, poor living conditions and even being banned from the rental office for raising concerns.
Carr is in HUD Exchange’s Section 236 Preservation Program, which prevents her rent from increasing to unaffordable levels. She said when she raised an issue about her rent increasing and her recertification papers, she was banned from the apartment complex’s rental office, which is the only place she can pay her rent and get in touch with the property’s managers.
“Whenever anything is broken in here, I can never get it fixed,” Carr said. “Its always a fight in here. I cannot remember a time where I don’t have to go to hell and high waters to get anything done.”
She noted that the perceived retaliation is not specific to just her and said she has seen numerous residents, such as Valentine, receiving eviction notices after they raise concerns about the complex’s living conditions.
Despite her effort to work with Windsor Valley Apartments, Carr said the situation hasn’t gotten any better and that she just has to deal with broken cabinets and other maintenance issues when they arise because she doesn’t want to be retaliated against.
“I feel so helpless,” Carr said. “Me and my son, I pray every day that the Lord helps us to find another place. I feel like we are not worthy or respected and there is absolutely no one to turn to.”
Windsor Valley Apartments’ management said it is not legally allowed to comment on the concerns from residents. The owners of Windsor Valley Apartments, Habitat America, did not respond to a request for comment.
The county’s director of the Department of Inspections, Licensing and Permits, Richard Truitt, said in a statement to Johnson that residents can submit complaints through the county’s website. Truitt said that fewer than 8% of the complaints made to his department have been for Windsor Valley Apartments and Perrywood Gardens.
“Respectively this department can only respond and investigate when we are made aware of current specific instances and infractions of county code,” Truitt wrote.
Johnson said many residents are afraid of retaliation, and as a result don’t submit complaints to the county.
When the department was asked by Harford County Council member Jacob Bennett’s office about specific issues, including unhealthy living conditions and delayed maintenance, the department either said the issue had been addressed or that the issue was outside of the department’s scope.
Harford County officials told The Baltimore Sun that the county does not operate any HUD housing developments and did not respond to a request for an interview with county housing officials about the matter.
Johnson said despite the county claiming that concerns from residents have been “resolved,” his office is still receiving complaints.
“I feel that the county has the responsibility to make sure that their citizenry have a quality of life that is equal to everybody and everybody,” Johnson said. “I am trying to make sure that people that are in my area of responsibility are taken care of because quality of life is a human right so we have got to fix this and my office is laser focused on fixing this.”
Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.
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