A group of tenants at the Waldo Heights apartment complex in south Kansas City is suing the facility’s ownership, alleging residents have been forced to live with pest infestations, security problems, garbage build-up and other problems.
Attorneys for the three plaintiffs, Valiera Brooks-Davis, Sherry Willaughby and Whitney Harris, who are residents or former residents of the complex, wrote in a complaint that Waldo Heights aggressively collects rent from hundreds of residents and yet is “reluctant, if not outright hostile, to respond to tenant complaints.”
In an interview with The Star, Brooks-Davis, who lived at the complex from July 2018 through December, recalled mice setting up residence in a shoe box in her home, not wanting to invite people over because roaches would tumble from the ceiling, and how garbage would pile up in dumpsters for three to four weeks.
At one point, a resident died in a unit in her building, and the body stayed in that person’s unit for three weeks, the odor masked by the smell from a nearby dumpster, she said.
Last year, residents were left without water for days after a main broke.
During her time at the apartments, the rent for her two-bedroom unit climbed from $605 per month to $699, Brooks-Davis said.
“Dogs live better,” she said. “People treat their dogs better than we were being treated. It’s just not right.”
The property, owned by San Francisco-based Landmark Realty, touts its management of “over 7,000 units across more than 80 properties nationwide.” Alongside Waldo Heights, the company also runs a handful of other properties in the Kansas City metro.
Requests for comment to both the company and Nicholas Porto, who’s listed as the company’s Kansas City-based attorney for the lawsuit, were not returned.
‘Profit over people’
The lawsuit, originally filed in Jackson County Circuit Court and moved to U.S. District Court in Kansas City in June, said the Kansas City Health Department has identified nearly 50 code violations at the property since 2019. Attorneys wrote the site operates in violation of several Kansas City ordinances that govern trash disposal, pest infestations and other requirements.
Robberies and violence “frequently” occur in the complex parking lot, and the site does not have any secured exterior doors, gates or lights in the parking lot, according to the lawsuit. Non-residents are often found sleeping in unsecured common areas and stealing clothes from the laundry room, attorneys wrote.
Brooks-Davis recalled returning home one night around 10 p.m. to find someone sleeping in front of her door. She grappled with what she should do and eventually stepped over the person, slipped through her door and called for security.
She spearheaded an effort to unionize residents with KC Tenants, which she believes led management to not renew her lease at the end of last year. Despite the poor conditions, the move sent her into depression. She now lives across the street from her old complex, and the conditions there still haunt her.
“I wanted to pursue this because they put profit over people,” she said of the lawsuit. “They need to understand that we deserve to live in safe, habitable, clean conditions. We deserve that.”
‘Pocket the money’
Harris, a resident of the property since 2018, has a door that’s not flush with the ground, leaving a two-inch gap that allows for rodents and roaches to enter her home, attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. The gap keeps her from regulating the space’s temperature, which the lawsuit said creates “freezing winter and sweltering summer temperatures.”
Harris had tires stolen from her car, her vehicle broken into, and she’s frequently found strangers sleeping in the laundry room. Because of safety concerns, she washes her clothes at a laundromat and doesn’t allow her children to leave her apartment, attorneys wrote.
Willaughby, a resident from April 2019 through early August 2023, also dealt with a rodent and roach infestation in her unit and had her car broken into at the complex. Frustrated by the conditions, she began to participate in the union and moved out when issues did not improve.
The lawsuit notes that Waldo Heights pursued a civil claim against her despite knowing she was no longer in possession of her residence, which her attorneys wrote was in retaliation for her complaints and union activity.
Gina Chiala, the executive director at the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom and one of the attorneys representing the women, said that while the lawsuit names three specific tenants, her group has heard from others with similar stories throughout the property. Tenants at Waldo Heights are predominantly low-income and people of color, according to the lawsuit.
“Too often, apartment complexes that rent to low-income people, choose to pocket the money that they’re supposed to be using for repairs and for upkeep,” Chiala said. “We want to see those profit models change, and we want to see them shift. We want to see these companies pay a price for violating the law.”
