Fairmont Apartment residents question living conditions despite $21M renovation project

Just last May, Shreveport city leaders and developers celebrated a ribbon cutting for renovation of the apartments. But one year later, residents say the inside looks nothing like what was promised.

Residents showed KTBS stained carpets, roaches, gnats, black mold and more.

"They need to actually tear the whole building down. The hallway and the fleas is unacceptable. The walls look dirty. It look like pee stains, like it hasn't been clean for a long period of time," said a tenant who asked not to be identified.

The tenant said she moved in just two months ago. KTBS asked why she signed the lease despite the terrible conditions.

"They took me to a floor. They looked decent, looking nice.  And I asked her, could I see like a one-bedroom apartment. Because that's what I was trying to apply for. But they told me at the last minute that because of how much I get paid and my job, I was only available to get the studio bedroom," the tenant said.

She -- and other tenants KTBS spoke to --were excited to find affordable housing at around $800 a month.

What she didn't expect, she says, was unreliable air conditioning and hallways that smell like cigarette smoke and urine.

"I don't know if it stopped working or just because I turned the air conditioner up or whatever, but it had been hot for the past two or three months as I'm being up in here," she said.

Some residents said many of the building's elderly tenants live on the 14th and 15th floors.

When KTBS visited on July 10, the hallway was hot and residents said the air conditioning wasn't circulating properly.

Midland Residence, the company that owns the property, responded through its public relations team.

"We're waiting on a new part to repair the air conditioning units. The elevator is now working. Pest control treats the building weekly, and we're addressing areas where wall damage has reappeared," said Public Strategy Group Inc. President Al Maiorino in the statement.

He also said the hallway carpets were cleaned last fall and claimed an encampment at the former Arlington Hotel next door has created ongoing challenges.

The Louisiana Housing Corporation, which provided $15 million for the renovations, says this is the first complaint it's received about the conditions.

"We are contacting the developer and will take appropriate action."

"It's really depressing. I don't want to make this another year of me staying at these apartments," the tenant said.

KTBS also reached out to Councilman Gary Brooks, whose district includes the Fairmont Apartments, but did not get a response.

Mayor Tom Arceneaux's office and the city's Permitting and Inspections Department were contacted, too, to ask when the building was last inspected. Neither immediately responded. A public records request has been submitted.