City Council members on Tuesday demanded answers from the city’s law and building department over tenants of Leland House being kept from obtaining their belongings after residents were forced out of the apartment building in December.
Low income seniors made up the majority of the tenants inside Leland House, the historic downtown building that was originally a luxury hotel. Those displaced after building safety issues closed the historic building have been unable to retrieve their belongings after the city shut down access out of safety concerns.
Council members expressed concern that former tenants missing documents still inside Leland House are at risk of being denied from applying to new housing or employment.
One former tenant, Katherine Guyton, is raising money after losing her part time job at the Leland and losing her address, which is necessary for obtaining new employment.
City of Detroit corporation counsel addressed concerns before council members on Tuesday, saying there’s no solution to re-enter the building until the structure’s transformer is fixed and the power is turned on.
“We are where we are, not because of anything the city of Detroit did,” Mallet said. “Detroit city council can take pride in the way that the bureaucracy in which you are the governors have responded.”
Mallet defended the city’s actions, saying the city three years ago started putting pressure on the owners of the building to get it up to code.
“BSEED has been omnipresent dealing with the issues dealing with the lack of accountability and compliance by the owners of the Leland House,” Mallet said.
Mallet said the city is trying to get tenants their property back and relocated into permanent housing, and force Leland House owners to bring the building into compliance or sell it.
Current owners told a Wayne County judge that they want permission to sell the property.
The next court hearing is Feb. 24, where the city hopes to get the courts permission for the moves to occur. About 20 of the 31 tenants have given the city permission to enter their apartment to pack up their items and deliver them to a public storage facility.
More than 40 people people were forced out in December.
Mallet said they are still looking for permission from the remaining 11 former tenants who are without their stuff.
“You said you were late to the party, it sounds like you didn’t show up to me,” District 5 member Renata Miller told Mallet. “This building did not just become unsafe to live in. They’ve had many maintenance failures… This is not new.”
She said the city should make decisions before emergency happens. Miller also defended the residents who haven’t given the city permission to collect their belongings for them.
“When that building was deteriorating three years ago, our job was to shut it down,” Miller said. “It’s an embarrassment… It is not right for us to stand here and say ‘We’ve done the best that we could.'”
Miller expressed concern with her office’s ability to observe the conditions of apartment buildings throughout the city. At one stop, Miller said apartment management blocked her from talking to residents, and at another, a cockroach fell on her from the ceiling.
“We need BSEED to own up because it’s not right,” Miller said. “When you have 70,000 landlords that are not being compliant in the city of Detroit, that’s a problem with leadership.”
Council member Mary Waters says her own staff has helped relocate tenants from Leland House. She asked Mallet whether tenants could have the dignity of overseeing what’s being removed from their apartment.
“That’s a good idea, we can figure out whether or not we can do something like that, if it’s not the tenant per say, maybe a tenant representative,” Mallet said. “We will try to figure out a way with the fire marshals cooperation to get as much involvement with tenants in some way to supervise the packing of their belongings. I don’t think that’s an impossible request.”
District 7 council member Denzel McCampbell said the city must fix the situation.
“It’s not something we can be proud of or happy about. We have to see a different level of enforcement against these landlords who do not care about our families, it’s very clear the owners of the Leland did not care,” McCampbell said.
