Woman scrambles to find a home after landlord hit with nearly 20 safety code violations

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A family suddenly has to pack up and move.

Their home was declared unsafe, after their landlord was hit with nearly 20 safety code violations.

“It’s terrible,” said Tenant Latonya Woods. “I’m sick to my stomach and there’s nothing I can do. Because what can I do?”

Latonya Woods isn’t sure where to turn after the place she called home on Prince Avenue the last six months was found unsafe to live.

Her landlord is facing a laundry list of safety violations.

“Her wiring was wrong, siding is coming off, paint is coming down,” said Woods.

Not to mention leaky faucets, deteriorating gutters and unsecured plumbing.

Cleveland’s Department of Building and Housing gave the landlord until June 16th to make repairs or face prosecution.

Now, Woods and her family, including her grandchildren, are struggling to find a new place to live.

“All I’m asking for is my rent and deposit so we can move on and find something,” said Woods. “We don’t have money to go to a hotel. We don’t have money to do these things.”

Woods says she was always on top of her rent payment. She showed us the receipts to prove it.

But her family stopped paying rent in April after their living conditions continued to get worse.

Now her landlord says they have a reason why nothing got done, blaming it on Wood’s health.

“My mother’s father does most of the repairs on the home,” said Landlord Tomika Jones’ daughter. “He is older and so because of that we didn’t want to put him at risk when she said she had covid.”

She also says some of the times they attempted to fix appliances, Woods wouldn’t let them in.

Whether her tenants were cooperative or not, the countdown is on for this landlord to tackle these violations, and it seems less and less likely to happen.

Now, Woods is putting her focus into finding a new home and making sure a situation like this doesn’t happen again.

“We’re just trying to get into something decent and clean so I can enjoy my grand kids,” said Woods.

We reached out to the building inspector on this case regarding what comes next if the landlord doesn’t make the necessary fixes.

When we get a response, we’ll update this story.

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