Tenants sue Shannon Enterprises and Alliance Management over housing conditions

Current and former tenants of Greensboro’s South Pointe Apartments are suing the owners and managers of the complex “for damages due to the Defendants’ failure to repair the premises and to put and keep them in a decent, safe and sanitary condition, while continuing to demand and collect rent from the Plaintiffs.” (View complaint here.) South Pointe’s owners made news in the fall of 2006 for having the second highest number of housing units in Greensboro with code violations.

Various documents on the North Carolina Secretary of State web site list some of the names of those associated with Shannon Enterprises of the Southeast (owner) and Alliance Management (property manager.) They include: Rick L. Hopkins; Brantley E. White; L. Worth Holleman, Jr.; and Thomas L. (Len) White, Jr.

According to the tenants’ complaint, they “endured unfit, unsanitary, unsafe, and substandard conditions,” which included:

“… frequent problems with sewage back-up… sewage and toilet paper seeping up in the common areas… a brown, thick substance that smelled like human waste in almost all of the Plaintiffs’ apartments. A strong odor of human waste pervaded the common areas and many of the Plaintiffs’ apartments.”

and

“… apartments… infested with roaches…”

and

“… a problem with bats… Colonies of bats lived in the breezeways of some of the buildings. Bats infested the common areas and, in some cases, infested individual Plaintiff’s apartments. One Plaintiff and her family had to undergo a series of rabies shots because a bat got into her couch and came into contact with her family.”

and

“… mold, causing unsanitary and uninhabitable conditions, and damaging some Plaintiffs’ personal property….”

and

“… rodents …”

and

“… plumbing leaks …”

» Read the complaint.

The tenants say that although they reported the problems, management “failed and refused to remedy these defective, unsanitary, unsafe, and unfit conditions in an adequate or timely manner.”

Members of the owner/management group are known for supporting local family and children’s charities and for participating on local boards and commissions. It seems antithetical that they would purposefully ignore the concerns of their low-income tenants or knowingly allow anyone to live in such deplorable conditions. I look forward to reading their answer to the complaint, and I hope for a prompt and compassionate resolution of this matter (to the satisfaction of all concerned) by the owners and managers of Shannon Enterprises and Alliance Management.

FYI: Here’s a 2006 list of the properties owned by Shannon Enterprises:

• Hunter’s Glen Apartments
  More about Hunter’s Glen on The Troublemaker, here.
• English Village Apartments
• Oakleigh Park Apartments
• Sedgefield Downs Apartments
• Timber Hollow Apartments
• South Pointe Apartments
• Arbor Crest Apartments
• Raintree Apartments
• Highland Hills Apartments
• Ashton Woods Apartments
• Skyline Village Apartments (WS)

“He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, And he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty.” — Proverbs 22:16