Tenants of 201 Ellicott Apartments are crying foul over what they say is improper management of the affordable housing complex located in downtown Buffalo.
"Roaches, bedbugs," tenant Lakesha Johnson said of the property. "People are working hard, hard working people, minorities. We don't get treated well. The property manager doesn't take time for us anymore."
After unveiling in 2021, the apartments which sit next to the Braymiller Market, has had three different property management companies manage the complex. Currently, Corvus Property Intelligence is managing the property.
Tenants also allege they are being denied rental payment receipts and are being charged for repairs done inside their apartment.
"They overcharged repairs," Johnson said. "Sending harassing letters for repairs that we're not supposed to pay for. They are supposed to cover all the repairs, which they don't do."
Grassroots tenant support organization Queen City Workers Center is helping tenants of 201 Ellicott find a resolution to this problem.
"The stories that I've heard from the tenants in this building have been appalling," Q.C.W.C. Housing Committee Chair Harper Arida said. "Bogus charges, eviction notices for people with two year olds, bed bugs, broken wiring, garbage piling up. But I've been with the Worker Center for four years now, and unfortunately, none of these stories are new to me. It's shocking, maybe, to see it in a big, shiny building with a pretty mural in the heart of downtown. But it's not new."
Arida said the issues tenants of 201 Ellicott are alleging are the same issues tenants across the city are facing.
"These things happen every day to people in every corner of the city." Arida said. "We're out here today because the situation for tenants of 201 Ellicott is unacceptable. But we're also here because the situation for tenants in the City of Buffalo is unacceptable. We're done, done with landlords, developers and property management companies doing whatever they like with impunity. We're done with soaring rents. We're done with bugs. We're done with mold. I'm personally done in my house with plausible deniability for lead poisoning. We're done with people being pushed out of the homes that they've lived in for decades under the pretense of improving the building. We're done living at the whims of people who don't care whether we live or die as long as they can cash a check, and we are done as of now with the heartless, humiliating and dehumanizing act of eviction. The city is ours. It belongs to tenants, and we're taking it back, starting today."
WBFO News has reached out to Corvus Property Intelligence for comment.
