FORT PIERCE — Bound to a wheelchair, 67-year-old Ronald Hodges recalled mopping up human feces that leaked into his apartment at the Fort Pierce Housing Authority-owned Park Terrace Apartments on Avenue B.

The raw sewage seeped underneath his refrigerator from a leaky pipe about six months ago, he said. When he alerted officials at the Housing Authority, nobody would come out to help, he added. So, fellow resident Lonnie Stubbs III, 30, took pictures of the incident, and a neighbor helped Hodges move his refrigerator.

One picture shows Hodges in his wheelchair mopping up the floor in his apartment. Others show flooding, feces on the first floor and a black garbage bag in the lobby of the building, which Stubbs and Hodges said was full of waste a maintenance crew cleaned up and left there for three days.

"This place is filled with mold, maggots are everywhere and human waste is coming out of the pipes into the hallways," Stubbs said. "We have a lot of elderly in this building, and these people are being neglected. These people are dying. They're throwing up. They have pneumonia."

Shortly after newspaper and television reporters arrived at the building Monday, cleaning crews showed up and began disinfecting the lobby and the area where garbage is stored. Maggots were visible crawling around the garbage storage shed. Air vents, air conditioning units, windows and doors throughout the building were heavily covered in dirt.

Fed up with living in "unsanitary" conditions, Stubbs and several other residents living in the 105-unit, seven-story building are crying out for help.

Most of the residents are elderly and disabled. Stubbs said when he sought assistance from state and local agencies he was told, "There's nothing we can do because it's not our jurisdiction."

Despite filthy conditions, Hodges said he likes living at Park Terrace because "everybody is like family here."
Housing Authority Executive Director Carrie Ross said Monday night she would be sending out inspectors to the building today.

Ross said if there were issues of raw sewage leaks and other problems that weren't taken care of, it's because they weren't reported.

"Anytime we're informed of anything that's going on we go immediately to the cause and fix it," she said. "That's what we do. Residents come first. It would be against the health and safety of our residents to allow them to live in those conditions. (Housing and Urban Development) would have us out of there tomorrow."

Ross said there have been instances of mold in several of the apartments, but those apartments have been vacated. Out of the 105 units, there are about 80 residents living in the building, she said. As far as dirty vents, doors and windows throughout the building, "I really can't speak to the dirt,"she said.

"Now that this has been brought to our attention, it's going to cause us to take a good hard look to make it sanitary for the residents, and that's what we want,"she said.

Resident manager Lee Drake recently sent Stubbs, who pays $200 rent monthly, a 14-day warning of eviction because he owes $366 in rent. Stubbs said he refuses to pay rent until the Authority provides a safe living environment.

Drake, who took over managing the building about four months ago, said a mold remediation crew tested the building and gave it a clean bill of health. But he couldn't recall when the testing was done or whether it was done in response to the 2004 hurricanes. He said residents are confusing dirt with mold.

Since Drake became manager, he said he's never seen any human waste or flooding throughout the building. He also said he hasn't seen the pictures taken by Stubbs.

"If it did occur, it was before I got here," he said. "If they would have reported something of that nature, it would have been taken care of." The majority of the issues they're talking about took place before I got here, and I know the maintenance department is doing every thing they can to rectify the problems."

Drake said there are residents who throw raw garbage down the chutes without sealing it in plastic bags, which might be the cause of the maggots.

He also said Housing Authority budget cuts have taken a huge toll on the agency. Ross said the Authority expects to lose 32 percent of its money.

"Yes, there's a lot of work to be done, there's no doubt. But we can only do so much with what we have to work with," he said. "One of the first things I tried to incorporate when I got here is if you see something that needs to be done, 'Hey, why can't we all chip in to help out?'"

http://www1.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,2545,TCP_16736_5602763,00.html