Crystal Lake Apartment residents receive legal help from NAACP
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Former residents at Crystal Lake Apartments begin to look for other homes.
Meanwhile, Macon-Bibb County’s NAACP is helping tenants fight for their rights, which they say are being violated. They held a press conference Friday morning outside the mid and high-rise buildings.
A Crystal Lake Apartments resident showed 41 News the upsetting condition of his apartment, which included a broken front door lock. The resident says people have been breaking in at night to sleep there, evidenced by food wrappers on the floor.
For the past 33-years, Mary Hampton called Crystal Lake home. It’s moving day for her.
“It hurt me knowing that I made this my home. I wanted to die here,” Hampton says.
Now displaced and evicted, she must move and pay extra money.
“Ain’t nobody give me a dime,” Hampton said.
Macon-Bibb NAACP says tenants have had human and civil rights violated. President Gwennette Westbrooks says they’re helping residents take legal action.
“The question is, how do violations like this go unnoticed and nothing is done about it up to the point people are being evacuated from their homes because of safety issues?” Westbrooks asked.
Some residents are receiving a prorated rent amount.
“If these people have defaulted on their lease they would have been responsible for paying out their leasing terms. Ultimately, the owner is responsible for paying these people out of their lease,” Westbrooks said.
Crystal Lake Apartments declined to comment. Crown Bay Management, owners of Crystal Lake, have not responded to calls and emails.
Westbrooks says that the NAACP is paying for U-Hauls for the displaced residents.
She says those affected by the displacement can start an investigation against the complex.
Leave a Reply