Lugar Tower residents cautiously hopeful as Indianapolis Housing Agency promises fixes

Last summer, Edward Washington, 74, had to master the art of hopping up the staircase of his public housing building, Lugar Tower, on a broken ankle because of how frequently the elevators would break down, just one of a litany of bad conditions IndyStar reported that residents had to deal with.

This summer, he told IndyStar, since the Indianapolis Housing Agency passed responsibility for managing the property to a private manager, "It's improved a hell of a lot."

The sea change in the quality of property maintenance is one of several reasons he has for hope.

The other reason is that the Indianapolis Housing Agency promised this week to improve conditions at the beleaguered downtown public housing building as part of an assurance of voluntary compliance with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's office.

Lugar Tower on Fort Wayne Avenue provides subsidized housing for people who are older or have disabilities.

The agreement was finalized on Monday after the Attorney General's Office opened an investigation in January into the housing agency's management of Lugar Tower. The investigation was prompted by at least 40 consumer complaints made by residents, many of who sounded the alarm bell on deplorable conditions at the apartments last year as reported by IndyStar in June 2022.

The Indianapolis Housing Agency agreed to maintain Lugar Tower in a safe, clean, habitable condition, in accordance with Indiana landlord-tenant law and Marion County's Health and Housing code, including keeping heating and air conditioning in continuous working condition, treating any pest infestations, and ensuring every apartment has secure and functioning locks.

The agency also agreed to compliance monitoring for the next two years by the court, responding to all consumer complaints received by the attorney general regarding Lugar Tower within 20 days, allowing the attorney general access to the property to ensure conditions have improved, and submitting quarterly compliance reports to the attorney general that contain lists of health department complaints, maintenance requests and repairs made to the apartments.

"We are grateful for the Attorney General’s willingness to work with the Indianapolis Housing Agency through the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance," the agency's chief executive officer Marcia Lewis wrote in an emailed statement.

"We have been working hard with the Lugar Tower property management company we engaged over the past several months to address resident concerns and improve living conditions.  We are confident going forward that we will maintain compliance under the terms of the agreement."

If the Indianapolis Housing Agency violates any terms of the agreement, the agreement states essentially that would be sufficient evidence of a deceptive consumer sales act violation under Indiana law. The attorney general could then lodge a complaint or file a legal claim under the deceptive consumer sales act, seeking injunctive relief, for instance.

According to the Attorney General's Office, residents at Lugar Tower had suffered from a lack of reliable elevators for almost a year between June 2022 and January this year, lack of consistent hot water until February this year, a lack of security in common areas leading to reports of criminal activity and loitering in the complex, human excrement in stairwells and unclean common areas.

The agency denied those allegations, according to the agreement.

An IndyStar investigation in June 2022 found that residents at Lugar Tower and other Indianapolis Housing Agency properties have borne the brunt of the agency's financial troubles and deficit, which led to severe understaffing of maintenance workers and thousands of open emergency work orders at the nine properties then managed by the agency.

During a heat wave last summer, IndyStar found that tenants at Barton Tower and Millikan on Mass, two of the agency's largest properties, had no working air conditioning.

These problems culminated in a lawsuit filed by six residents in April against the housing agency and the property manager, Bradley Company Management. The case is still pending in Marion County Superior Court and a trial date has not yet been set.

Fran Quigley, an attorney representing the residents, said that his clients are glad to see the attorney general taking action and the housing agency's promise to honor residents' rights to live in a safe and clean environment.

But, he added, the assurance of voluntary compliance does not affect his clients’ or other residents’ rights to privately enforce their rights as tenants under Indiana law. So the lawsuit will continue.

Public housing residents suffered for years before remedy

According to some tenants and the voluntary assurance agreement, conditions have improved starting this spring after the public housing agency hired Indianapolis-based Bradley Company as a property manager.

"Everything is running nice, like clockwork, almost," Washington told IndyStar. "Believe it or not, you can catch the elevator now."

Now, the hallways are clean, the building has 24-hour security, maintenance staff mop the floors and the apartments have working locks on the doors, Washington said.

It's a far cry from last summer. Then, trash bags were piled in heaps around the chute on Washington's floor. He was worried about his safety because the buildings' front and side doors were not secured. Residents took on the task of sweeping common areas in the absence of any maintenance staff. And Washington had to fork out his own money to buy a deadbolt for his apartment.

Bradley Company took over management of Lugar Tower from the agency in December after the agency said last year that it would transition to third-party property management as a way to cut costs.

Since then, according to the voluntary assurance agreement, Bradley has installed two water heaters, had all elevators repaired, fixed the front door, hired maintenance staff to do power washing and deep cleaning of stairwells, and hired 24-hour security. There've been no major heating failures or elevator break downs since, according to the agreement.

Although some residents have seen improvements, others are still struggling.

Sandra Barnes, a 61-year-old who has lived at Lugar Tower since 2014, told IndyStar she has had to sleep on living room couch for the past four years because mold in her bedroom vents triggered her asthma so badly that she could not sleep a full night without coughing, becoming congested and struggling to breathe.

"That's the only way I can sleep," Barnes, who is one of the residents who filed the April lawsuit, said. "This building is full of mold. I want the mold to be addressed."

Although Barnes said it's good that the Attorney General's Office stepped in, she still feels abandoned by the housing agency and needs to see more improvements.

Washington echoed her sentiment.

"I hope they’ll be able to keep it up, that’s the main thing," he said. "That’s what we’re all concerned about."

Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Attorney General: Indianapolis Housing Agency agrees to fix building