Single Mother And Children Forced To Live In Roach-Infested Croixville Apartment For Over A Year By VI Housing Authority

ST. CROIX — She begged, pleaded, cried, made innumerable calls and wrote a number of letters to officials of the Virgin Islands Housing Authority (V.I.H.A.), asking that the authority transfer her and her children out of the Croixville Apartments unit that she was placed in as part of the Section 8 housing program, a unit that to this day suffers a severe roach infestation problem.

The cries for help, however, were ignored by V.I.H.A. for months, and there appeared only one recourse left: the media.

The desperate call to The Consortium came on Monday. The woman, who sounded nervous, was at the end of her rope and wanted to talk about her plight. She had only recently been given a voucher to move out of the roach-infested apartment, but it came only after she vowed to take her story to the media, so she decided to move forward nonetheless — if only to help others facing the same situation.

On the phone, the mother wailed. Her voice barely audible, she was aghast that her cries for help only came after she decided to go public. As she cried, she spoke of the humiliation she had endured: whenever she would attempt to cook, the heat would cause roaches, which appeared from all over, to drop in her pot — instantly spoiling the effort. The roaches found their way into the refrigerator, sugar, veggie burgers wrapped and stored in the fridge and in almost all groceries in the kitchen.

On Monday evening, the tenant gave The Consortium access to her apartment so the publication could see firsthand her situation. And she requested not to be named so that her children, who are attending high school, are not embarrassed by their peers when video footage of the roach infestation is published. (The footage was published on The Consortium’s Facebook platform on Friday, and has garnered a wave of commentary and over 31,000 views as of Saturday morning. More on that later.)

When the family moved into the home in July 7, 2017, the mother said it took about two months before the roaches started to appear. But once they did, it was virtually impossible to control them, as she could not understand where they were coming from and no amount of roach spray seemed to quell the ceaseless flow. Her first action was to report the infestation to the manager at the Croixville office, who then hired Oliver Exterminating to disinfect the home. (She had originally said the company was Terminix, but later apologized for the error.)

But a number of attempts by Oliver Exterminating yielded no results, she said — the roaches kept reappearing. The tenant said she was told by Oliver Exterminating employees that no amount of disinfecting would solve the problem, as the roaches were in the sheetrock. To stop the flow of roaches, the apartment would need to be demolished and reconstructed, she said she was told by Oliver Exterminating employees.

By then, the mother and her children were being afflicted by the roach infestation. The roaches infiltrated virtually everything. Feeling helpless, the mother decided to call V.I.H.A. in an attempt to reach Sharon Piper, who was V.I.H.A.’s voucher program supervisor during the one-year period that the infestation was being reported. The mother made a number of calls and left voice messages to Ms. Piper about the conditions in the apartment, but never heard back. What followed was months of stress, brokenness and humiliation for the single mother and her children, who were forced to eat out.

Following the 2017 storms, the infested Croixville apartment sustained minor damages. During that time, the mother and her children continued living in the apartment with the roaches, even as she continued to request a transfer to no avail. Then on April 5, 2018 — 9 months after living in the infested home — Ms. Piper visited the apartment to perform an annual inspection. The results of the inspection further proved what the mother had been saying all along, that aside from the minor damages, the major finding was roach infestation, an issue the inspection determined had to fixed by the owners of Croixville Apartments, The Michaels Organization. The company also owns the Harbor View and Canebrake Apartments on St. Croix.

While Ms. Piper was at the apartment doing the inspection, the mother used the opportunity to speak with her, since the attempts via phone were unsuccessful. She requested a transfer, but she said she was told by Ms. Piper that because she hadn’t stayed in the apartment for a year, there was nothing that could be done to help. The mother said Ms. Piper told her that V.I.H.A. policy says a tenant must stay at an apartment for a year before a transfer request can be granted. She said she was dumbfounded by the response and could not comprehend how — after seeing for herself the extreme level of roach infestation of the apartment — Ms. Piper could not expedite her request.

The eating out had to continue, along with the constant throwing away of goods because of the infestation, the mother said. Her tolerance level, which was way past its tipping point by then, gave way to a determination to find answers and results.

On April 19, the mother wrote a letter addressed to Akala Anthony, director of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. Here’s a portion of the letter:

“I am writing this letter because I am fed up with the living condition that my children and I must endure. It has been eight months that I have been residing at the Croixville Apartment Complex, and it has been hell. I must continuously be washing and rewashing my dishes and [Oliver Exterminating] is always at my home due to roach infestation in my apartment that no one had seemed to mention.

“These roaches are not just crawling out from places, they’re inside the sheetrock which makes it even harder to kill them. No amount of roach spray that I have bought, and trust me I have been buying $7 can if not more. I have had to throw away food from my cupboards as these roaches have found their way in my sugar and anything else in bags. These roaches have gotten access to my refrigerator and found themselves in my bag of veggie burgers and bread that have all been thrown away. In the night when the light is out, it is like a million of them come out all at the same time. I have lost my groceries due to this infestation problem with no way of repurchasing my food as the SNAP benefits allowance is monthly.

“When the [Oliver Exterminating] guy gets to my apartment as he did this morning, he has pulled out the fridge and stove and all the draws in the kitchen, and it is a constant mess. When my daughter gets out of school, I cannot prepare any meals for her as [the exterminating worker] stated I must let the spray work for a couple of hours before I start to clean up. I must be taking her to the local gas station to purchase food when school is over…

“This has been going on for perhaps two months after I moved into my apartment and I would like to know who will reimburse me for my consecutive loss of food and my time having to deal with this roach infestation that was there before I moved in.

“I am suffering in this apartment silently, and I refuse to tolerate this living condition any longer. I have been speaking to Ms. Piper as she was here on April 5 for the housing inspection, and before that by complaining via telephone of my situation.”

Ms. Anthony, according to the tenant, never responded to the letter. The Consortium attempted to reach V.I.H.A. representatives via phone to no avail. The St. Croix office gave a number for public relations in St. Thomas, but no one answered. A voice message was left giving reasons for the call and contact information to respond, but at time of writing, no one from V.I.H.A. had responded.

Two months after receiving no response from Ms. Anthony, the mother decided to go higher with her complaint by writing to V.I.H.A. Executive Director Robert Graham. The letter almost mirrored the one she wrote on April 19. Distinctively, however, she cc’d The Consortium in the last letter, and quoted V.I.H.A.’s mission statement, which reads: “To create vibrant, dynamic, sustainable communities so families can evolve economically, and to improve lives and strengthen communities through quality, safe and affordable housing, and by providing a myriad of services to empower public housing residents”.

V.I.H.A., the mother said, had failed miserably in keeping in line with its mission statement.

Days after writing the letter, the mother said she visited the St. Croix office on Monday, July 23, demanding action. Almost immediately after leaving the office, she received a call asking her to return at 3:00 p.m. the same day to collect a voucher package that gives her the option of choosing an apartment of her choice elsewhere. The mother said while she was relieved that she would be out of the roach-infested apartment, along with her children, she was heartbroken at what led to the positive results, and was therefore determined to bring the issue to the fore to expose V.I.H.A., so that others going through the same struggle could get help.

Following the publication of the video on The Consortium on Friday, the manager for Croixville scheduled an appointment with the mother to visit the apartment. The manager also set an appointment for Oliver Exterminating for Monday, and offered the tenant another apartment at Croixville until she moves out.

“Wow, how quickly things get done when the media gets involved,” she said.