“This is about what is right and fair," Township seeks resolution to Cedar Glen issues
SOUTH BEND — A South Bend apartment complex with a recent history of tenant complaints of unlivable conditions now faces a legal ultimatum from the Portage Township trustee.
Trustee Jason Critchlow said the township's legal counsel issued a letter to the owners of Cedar Glen Apartments listing four conditions that must be met to avoid legal action.
Those four conditions are:
● Provide restitution to the affected residents of Cedar Glen
● Provide restitution to Portage Township for Township Assistance payments made, but services not fully provided
● Permit the formation of a local tenant’s association and seek to maintain a positive working relationship
● Agree to three years of compliance reporting regarding any disruptions to the habitability of Cedar Glen
“This is about what is right and fair,” said Critchlow in a press release. “These individuals and families deserve compensation and assurances that these habitability issues will not continue unchecked. We believe these requests are reasonable and would provide the fastest resolution for the affected residents. I am hopeful Cedar Glen representatives will see it the same way,” adding that the Indiana attorney general’s office agrees with their proposal as a means for resolution.
Critchlow claims an investigation over several weeks conducted by himself and Krieg DeVault LLP attorney Alex Bowman documents ample evidence Cedar Glen has committed multiple violations of Indiana law. Critchlow said he and Bowman interviewed dozens of tenants about their living situation, as well walking through units to inspect these conditions for themselves.
They determined that the critical violations within Cedar Glen Apartment units breach the statutory requirement for a landlord to provide a habitable space to tenants.
Previous coverage: South Bend apartments suffer blizzard without heat, township trustee eyeing legal action
Critchlow said the trustee’s office has been communicating with the property owners. “They’ve been very open in admitting they have issues and that they want to be able to fix the issues out there,” he said.
Cedar Glen tenants voiced their concerns at a tenants meeting earlier this month, describing poor living conditions and lengthy waits for repairs.
“Why did it have to come to this?“ Cedar Glen resident Janice Boyd questioned Critchlow during the gathering. “Why couldn’t we, as the tenants, go in and say, ‘This is what’s going on,’ and see some action being taken, instead of having to go through all of this?”
Boyd said she pays her rent on time. She wants to trust that when she walks into her home, the lights will turn on. She wants to be able to get hot water whenever she turns on her hot water. She wants to be able to cook, clean and bathe.
“I can’t tell you why,” Crtichlow responded. “But I can tell you, you’re being heard now. When I hear someone went four months last year without hot water, it’s unacceptable.”
Boyd wanted to know if the property owners have told Critchlow why this has gone on for so long.
“The current property owners are saying they didn’t realize the issues were as bad as they were,” Critchlow said.
Boyd laughed. “They’re lying,” she said.
Legislation or litigation
Rodney Gadson, the president of the South Bend Tenant Association, said the next natural step for recourse has to be legislation or litigation. “Either you gotta sue or you gotta change the law,” Gadson said at the tenants meeting at LaSalle Branch Library.
For Gadson, this issue is personal. He said his grandchildren, ages 4 and 7, live at Cedar Glen and go to his house regularly to bathe.
The South Bend Tenant Association focuses on educating tenants about how to file maintenance requests, tips on how to write a complaint by including a time of when the request is expected to be finished and getting registered to vote.
“The problem is the laws,” said Judith Fox, a retired clinical professor emerita of law from the University of Notre Dame who has 31 years of past experience with landlord-tenant law and assists with the Tenant Association. “We’re never going to change that unless you get out there and vote.”
According to Indiana Code 32-31-82-8-6, “A tenant may bring an action in a court with jurisdiction to enforce an obligation of a landlord under this chapter.”
A tenant must give their landlord notice of what needs to be done and give them reasonable time to do it, Fox said, but a tenant can take a landlord to court to enforce what hasn’t been done.
Landlord responsibility to make repairs has also been a topic of discussion among civic leaders and elected officials in the aftermath of the Jan. 21 fatal fire in a rental house that killed six children. The house had failed a federal inspection that found many safety violations, including extensive electrical problems and structural issues in the ceiling over the first floor. The property management company in charge of that house has claimed it made all the repairs before the children and their father moved in, but that has yet to be determined by state and local investigators.
“If you want to go into court to enforce it,” Fox said, “saying ‘Hey, they didn’t fix this, make them do it,’ that will only be triggered if you have made your complaint in writing. You can still call your landlord to fix something,” Fox clarified, “but from a practical matter, if you don’t have it in writing, they’re not going to believe you.”
Fox said that 99% of the time, the judge will believe the landlord.
This law was news to Cedar Glen tenant Ginnie Brandt, who claims she repeatedly left calls in Cedar Glen’s office about repairs.
She even did it nicely, which was hard for her, she said, amid her frustrations.
“They lie to us,” Brandt said. “There’s no point in talking to them. They lie. They lie. I made the mistake of calling and trusting. I don’t understand what the disconnect is. I called three times and trusted the person who answered the phone to communicate this to the proper person.”
Brandt’s neighbor Todd Bogunia said there’s only about 20 hours a week of access to the office for a request, saying they’re closed all day on Wednesdays.
Problems began partway through last year
A Cedar Glen employee in the on-site management office told a Tribune reporter that the new management company, Indianapolis-based Barrett and Stokely, took over in August of 2023 from Bradley Company. The owners, MAH Cedar Glen LP, who are also housed in Indianapolis, remained the same.
Bogunia told The Tribune that within six weeks of new management taking over, the complex started having hot water issues.
The Tribune reached a receptionist at Barrett and Stokely.
“They’re not giving out any information at this time,” she said. She declined to give out a party extension and said that she didn’t know why Barrett and Stokely wasn’t giving out information, explaining that she’s received emails to not give out information right now.
The on-site employee referred a reporter to Cedar Glen corporate officials for further comment, but Cedar Glen has not responded to multiple emails from The Tribune, and there is no phone number listed on their website.
“I lived without hot water for four months,” said Brandt, who claims his apartment smelled like sewage because of a water leak.
“You can splash around in the hallway outside the apartment door,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Brandt receives a supportive housing voucher from Oaklawn, paying $269 a month to live at Cedar Glen, while Oaklawn assists with the other 70 percent.
After going without hot water for months, Brandt said, the problem persisted again for another two and a half weeks and again, as she was in New Jersey this past Christmas.
To shower, Brandt said, she took two buses to St. Margaret’s House Day Center for Women, but added that not everyone has that opportunity.
“Single moms cannot handle taking two buses to take a shower,” said Brandt, not knowing where men were able to bathe. “It’s just too much. It’s really messed up,” she said.
Other than a shower at St. Margaret’s, Brandt said, the only other option was to “spray some body spray around and go around dirty.”
It’s better, for now, Brandt said.
“We just got our hot water back, but we have every reason to not trust that it will continue,” she said, adding that Cedar Glen gave tenants $50 to compensate for not having hot water for two months.
Brandt’s now worried she’ll get evicted, and with two current violations, it’ll take only one more.
Despite the troubles she’s received at Cedar Glen, Brandt said, she can’t go back to her previous “traumatic” situation: homelessness. She said she chose to live at Cedar Glen because of their immediate openings, not wanting the alternative, to live in a tent for a couple of months waiting for a better place to open.
State legislators plead Cedar Glen's cause to attorney general
Issues within Cedar Glen have reached the state’s ear.
As more information comes to light and people speak out more, a pair of local state lawmakers is asking the attorney general for help, according to state Rep. Maureen Bauer, D-South Bend.
Bauer told The Tribune she and state Sen. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, sent a letter on Feb. 1 to Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asking to expedite the request for an investigation at Cedar Glen Apartments. Bauer said the pair received a response from Rokita's office Feb. 6 saying an investigation was being assigned within Rokita's office.
The letter states, “Many residents have reported low to no heat or hot water during the coldest times of winter. Ensuring safe housing entails the provision of essential amenities such as running water, heating or air conditioning, and functional appliances. [...] Many of the tenants seek rental assistance through the Portage Township Trustee’s Office. Residents have bravely spoken out, breaking their silence to highlight the critical violations they endure on a daily basis, which have a long history of going unaddressed.”
Retaliation against tenants is definitely a factor, Bauer said, encouraging tenants to go through the complaint process, utilizing the city’s Rental Safety Verification Program or to contact the attorney general’s office.
“The state of Indiana has tied the hands of municipalities from having a landlord-tenant association,” Bauer said. “Prior to the pandemic, Rodney Gadson and others were available to help on a legal standpoint for tenant rights against their landlord, but now, we don’t have as strong an option to push back.
"There’s retaliation for renters where they do have to worry about eviction. There is a real fear, if you speak out, what consequences could they do to retaliate?”
Regardless, it’s the attorney general’s responsibility to “protect consumers,” she said.
“We are in session now,” she said. “So we’re trying to strategize ways we can go after bad landlords or, like they did in Indianapolis, allow rent to go into a third party account.”
Senate Bill 243, a landlord-tenant law requiring Marion County landlords to fix up rental properties before renting it out, died in committee. SB 243 would have allowed the Health and Hospital Corporation to require landlords to fix issues cited in a rental property, within Marion County, even after the tenant has moved out or been evicted, according to Indianapolis' WTHR 13 News.
Bauer and Niezgodski were hoping to make amendments to the bill for South Bend before it failed. With one member absent, the bill lost in a tie, but Bauer isn’t giving up.
“I’m going to try to get some of that language perhaps amended into a bill in the second half of the session,” she said. “It does require a lot of work and collaboration with other members to amend someone’s bill, but it was such a close call, 5-5, so I think there is newfound attention on these issues, especially after such a fatal fire. It should move us all to act. By sharing that story, perhaps we can move some legislators to help us on this issue.”
As state legislators buckle down to create bills to help, Fox said, the city of South Bend can do more.
“In my opinion, the city hasn’t been aggressive enough,” Fox said. She said that by utilizing code enforcement, the city can fine up to $250 per week, per unit.
Fox cited the South Bend ordinance 10933-23, adopted last year, which gives landlords strict deadlines to fix issues that come up on inspection: 60 days for routine violations and 10 days for critical violations.
“This is clearly a safety issue,” Fox said, and although the ordinance did not specify what would fall under “critical” violation, she said, it would include plumbing, heating and electrical, asserting that much of what is going on at Cedar Glen is critical.
“My understanding is that part of the problem is that they don’t have enough inspectors,” Fox said. “The ordinance says that you’re supposed to pass inspection to be certified. I can tell you that very few are. If one member of Cedar Glen calls for an inspection,” Fox gave an example, “that gives them the authority to check every apartment. You don’t have to wait for every person to call.”
As of Feb. 14, Caleb Bauer said, there were $750 in outstanding fines levied through the Rental Safety Verification Program. These have not been paid, he said.
An inspection in January found units lacking heat and hot water, said Bauer. After reinspection, the critical services within those units were restored. He stated that currently the city was unaware of any Cedar Glen units without hot water or heat.
“We rely on complaints to inspect units and encourage residents to call 311 if their unit is in substandard condition to allow an inspector to conduct a site visit,” Bauer said. “There are seven units with 60-day violations, but management still has time to complete the required repairs before additional fines are levied.”
Residents can request an inspector through 311 by calling 574-233-0311 or by visiting the website.
Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Frustrated Cedar Glen tenants speak out, prompting township legal plea
