OXFORD, Ohio — An Oxford city leader is urging the city to take action after repeated complaints about safety and mismanagement at a Section 8 housing complex.
Residents at the Parkview Arms Apartments told WCPO that many maintenance requests went unfulfilled, some units had issues with bug infestations and drug use was rampant.
Vice Mayor Chantel Raghu said the property has been a high drain on police, fire and EMS resources and wants to introduce legislation to allow the city to get more involved.
“We need to make sure that we have the tools in our pocket to hold the property, the property owners accountable,” she said.
Raghu wants to introduce a property nuisance ordinance, similar to Cincinnati’s chronic nuisance law, which would allow city officials to deem problem properties a nuisance.
The issue came to a head after a fire in a unit inside the complex last week. Oxford City Manager Doug Elliott told WCPO that tenants had torn out their smoke alarm after it allegedly had been regularly going off.
Elliott said issues with smoke detectors were a major issue at the property during the city’s last inspection in 2022, but issues were resolved after the inspection.
“A lot of the smoke detectors were not there and many of them were not operable,” he said during a Tuesday city council meeting.
Resident Gary Landrum showed us inside one of the units inside his building. His neighbor had recently moved out due to the conditions.
“You can already see the cockroaches running,” he said.
Landrum said his neighbor had asked property managers to remove the carpet or steam-clean it.
“Half the appliances do not work,” he said.
We also observed a hole in the wall.
By contrast, Landrum’s unit did not have any visible issues.
WCPO spoke with a representative from the building’s property management company before visiting with residents. She declined to be named or be recorded but said she was unaware of any concerns regarding safety and management.
The representative said sometimes landlords and managers are blamed for things they cannot control.
We called that representative back after speaking with residents about specific complaints but did not receive an additional response by the time of publication.
“If they (residents) go to speak up, they get shunned or threatened,” Landrum said. “The place is falling down, but this is the only place we have.”
Landrum and other residents also complained about frequent drug use in open areas.
“Some of the drug stuff gets scattered around,” said Hannah Cole, who grew up at Parkview Arms and has family still living at the property. “It’s unsafe for kids.”
Other residents told us they disagreed with those complaints. They felt the issues were being overstated and the blame was being misplaced.
