Detroit City Council wants action and answers in the wake of reports of ‘inhumane’ conditions at a west side senior apartment community.
City officials say the Greenhouse Apartments, a subsidized senior living facility, has been plagued for months with with bedbugs and nonworking elevators.
City Council President Pro Tem Coleman A. Young II elevated the issues during Tuesday’s formal session and called on multiple city departments to provide updates on inspector visits and findings and updates on addressing the resident concerns.
“These are like basic necessities that people should have. The elevator should work and it should be clean,” Young said. “You should not be sleeping in a place with bugs that can eat your flesh and you should be able to get in an elevator that works and not have people who can’t walk, physically standing on their hands and using their butt to go up and down the stairs. That’s not only dangerous, it’s inhumane and it’s wrong.”
Council members asked the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department (BSEED), Department of Neighborhoods and human services office about efforts to assist residents and what sort of penalties the city might be able to seek against building managers who do not provide habitable living conditions to tenants. The apartment complex has 209 units. The number of tenants is unclear.
BridgeDetroit was still waiting for a response from the building’s management company, KMG Prestige, as of Tuesday evening.
During Tuesday’s meeting, BSEED Chief Enforcement Officer Arthur Rushin confirmed that an inspector recently verified that the passenger elevator had been down. He said a contractor had been deployed to fix that elevator and evaluate a freight elevator at the building and to run safety checks. Both the passenger and freight elevator were expected to be operational by the end of Tuesday. He also confirmed that the building is currently operating with a Certificate of Compliance, though it has received citations for elevator- and certificate-related issues in the past.
Rushin later confirmed in written responses provided to BridgeDetroit that the building’s passenger elevator had been down for about six months.
BSEED has received three bedbug complaints since 2023. The current bedbugs outbreak will be trickier to handle, according to Rushin. He said property management told him eight units have active issues with bedbugs, and pest control does treatments every Monday. However, he mentioned resolving issues with bedbugs was a continual process.
On a Tuesday phone call with BridgeDetroit, a representative from the Greenhouse Apartments, who identified herself as a community manager, declined to comment beyond confirming that, “the issue is being handled.”
Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway noted during Tuesday’s meeting that the building has been problematic for a number of years. Last year, it was featured on Fox 2 Detroit because the building didn’t have heat, she said.
Young said that the city needs to increase the number of city inspectors to ensure enough facilities are registered with the city and that Detroit has to be “really aggressive” with properties like Greenhouse. He asked about the most “draconian” response the council could use to penalize noncompliant landlords and managers.
“Let’s just skip the nonsense,” he said. “Let’s go to the toughest penalty and just continue to do that until people get the point.”
Managers and landlords can be ticketed by the city for noncompliance issues or taken to court, which can sometimes be a lengthy process.
Graham Anderson, a legislative liaison with the city’s Law Department, said habitability issues could be grounds to expedite legal action. He told Young during Tuesday’s meeting that he can speak with the team in the Law Department that specializes in that work “and see what can be done.”
In addition to city departments collaborating and connecting residents with resources, inspectors are a vital part of what’s available to keep buildings and managers in check. In an interview with BridgeDetroit, Young said he would seek to prioritize funding for more inspectors within the next few budgeting cycles. BSEED currently has 42 residential inspectors for the entire city.
According to data from Housing & Revitalization Department spokesperson Alison DeRees, including Greenhouse Apartments, there are 86 HUD properties serving seniors in the city of Detroit.
Alongside more inspectors, Young said he would be willing to explore different technology options that might help with inspections, which could include drones or smart sensors.
