Cleveland tenants at senior apartment building want permanent solution to trash problem

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - There’s a trashy situation right now at a local senior apartment building.

With full trash shoots and the garbage quickly piling up, people who live there say it’s starting to smell and attract bugs.

“I was getting sick,” said Kirby Manor Tenant Sabrina Fortune. “Throwing up.”

Fortune said she and the rest of the tenants at Kirby Manor on Detroit Avenue have had enough of their trash problem.

Piles of it are inside their building.

For the last week, Fortune said the trash hadn’t been taken out.

The stink was attracting bugs and outside, an even bigger mess.

Tenants said a heaping pile of garbage hadn’t been touched for months.

That is, until the 19 Troubleshooters showed up.

Right as we got to Kirby Manor, cleaning crews had started removing the trash outside and in.

“Yesterday, you couldn’t even open this door,” said Tenant Donald Burnley.

Already, Tuesday was a huge improvement over what things looked like. But tenants worry this could happen again.

“I would like the garbage to be taken out at least every day,” said Fortune.

So, 19 News took their concerns to management.

The property manager told us that they’re beginning to switch to bigger dumpsters because there are more tenants moving in.

She said it’s a transition that should help the building keep up with all of the trash.

A promising explanation tenants hope will be a lasting solution.

You can bet the 19 Troubleshooters will stay on this to make sure.

We also reached out to the property management’s corporate number.

The Director of Public Relations for National Church Residences sent us this statement, “Providing safe and clean living accommodations for our senior residents is a priority. Therefore, we take this matter very seriously and our operations team has been involved in providing a solution to clean up the trash overflow.

We were unaware of this issue, until we received a call from a Kirby Manor resident today.

In recent weeks, 30 new residents moved into this 147-unit affordable housing community. The amount of trash increased greatly as new residents settled into their apartments at Kirby Manor and discarded moving boxes along with other items. The property manager ordered two larger dumpsters on Friday, but the earliest they could be delivered was today. One dumpster was filled, emptied and returned. All of the trash has been cleaned up and the three dumpsters are full again. The property manager asked for Rumpke to pick up the garbage tomorrow. Once the dumpsters are emptied, the overflow of trash should no longer be an issue at Kirby Manor.”

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