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While Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, U.S. H.U.D Regional Administrator Jennifer Riley Collins, and other elected leaders toured an Opa-locka apartment complex condemned by Miami-Dade County, residents pleaded for their help. 

Mold and mushrooms growing on walls, water leaks, flooding, and sewage backup are all issues residents say they’ve experienced for several months that have gone unresolved by Glorieta Gardens’ property management companies, according to residents. The Miami Times first reported this story in September of last year.

“I’ve traveled the world, I have been to Soweto South Africa … the Philippines, where the poorest of the poorest [live] and you can enter their homes without passing out,” said Wilson after witnessing first-hand the deplorable living conditions at the H.U.D-funded apartment complex. 

Glorieta Gardens, a H.U.D. funded apartment complex in Opa-locka, has received countless complaints from residents regarding mold, rodent infestation and sewage backup issues. 

“We acknowledge that these are unacceptable living conditions in several apartments and throughout this complex,” said Collins, vowing to take any action necessary to hold property managers accountable. “HUD is committed to [ensuring] that tenants live in safe spaces that are up to industry standards.”

Opa-locka city officials, who led Wilson and Collins through the site and into multiple mold-infested units, said some residents had to be relocated to hotels while the building and health safety concerns were being addressed. 

Miami-Dade County, through its Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources’ Division of Resources Management (DERM), filed a lawsuit against Glorieta Partners, Kenneth Weiss, and three other companies that manage the property after the defendants failed to address sanitation issues discovered by county inspectors in half a dozen inspections last year

“While the impacted areas were surrounded by yellow caution tape, the open cleanout was overflowing with raw sewage and there was no evidence of any cleaning or disinfection of the impacted areas,” DERM explained in the lawsuit. “A strong odor of raw sewage was present around all five of the open, uncapped sewage cleanouts.”

That strong odor was still present during Wilson and Collins’ Monday afternoon visit. 

“Give us a voucher and let us go,” residents desperate to leave the complex begged on Monday. 

Look for a more in-depth story on Glorieta Gardens in Wednesday’s edition of The Miami Times.