ATLANTA — After paying millions of dollars to relocate the tenants of a dilapidated apartment complex, the City of Atlanta is now suing the company who owned the property to recover the costs.
Channel 2′s Tom Regan was outside the now-vacant Forest Cove Apartments, where officials said both the city, and the former tenants, are owed for the conditions residents had to live through before being relocated.
It’s an issue that’s been building up for years, with complaints of safety, cleanliness, and deplorable living conditions spurred officials to shutter the complex and move everyone out.
Channel 2 Action News has covered issues at Forest Cove for years, as far back as 2018.
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Atlanta city officials say the property owner of Forest Cove failed to maintain the location, making it a magnet for crime.
Mayor Andre Dickens said Friday that the owner must be held accountable for taking federal housing money in, through Section 8 vouchers, and then failing to provide a safe place for people to live.
“No one should experience this type of crisis anywhere, especially in the city of Atlanta,” Dickens said at the announcement. “They had no concern or regard for the humanity of these people.”
Former resident Felicia “Peaches” Morris broke down in tears while describing what it was like living in the deplorable and dangerous living conditions at Forest Cove.
“It was so hard. When I think about it, it makes me cry, because we had to go through so much,” Morris said during a media briefing announcing the lawsuit.
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While living at the federally subsidized apartment complex, tenants had to live with collapsed walls and ceilings, rat infestations, mold and the constant threat of becoming a crime victim.
Morris is named as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against Ohio-based Millennia, a real estate company that was managing the property. The suit seeks millions of dollars that Dickens said taxpayers forked over to relocate hundreds of residents.
The former Forest Cove resident said she endured 20 years of dangerous conditions at the public housing development.
A municipal judge condemned the property for demolition.
“We will do everything in our power to hold Millennia responsible and provide residents of this city with safe and secure housing,” Dickens said.
The lawsuit is part of a class action effort led by attorney Ben Crump.
“We will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of the displaced residents of Forest Cove and on behalf of the city of Atlanta for all of the fund these land developers took on behalf of the Forest Cove Residents,” Crump said.
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He said the legal effort will address negligent conditions present not just at Forest Cove, but at other dilapidated properties Millennia owns in other cities and states.
“In other pending litigation against Millennia, that they have a pattern of neglect in their low-income housing properties across the country,” Crump continued. “Simply put, the residents of Forest Cove believe Millennia put profits over safety, specifically their safety.”
Millennia has filed its own lawsuit against the City of Atlanta.
The company told Channel 2 Action News that it tried to work out a redevelopment plan for Forest Cove for a year, but that the city prefers a development plan for Thomasville Heights that doesn’t involve maintaining affordable housing.
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