JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — Something as simple as turning the faucet on to wash your hands with warm running water is no longer the reality for several tenants at the Windgate Square apartments in Jacksonville.
Tenants said they have been without hot water for weeks in their apartments.
"We have no hot water, so it makes it hard to do your dishes and take daily baths," Brenda Fisk said. "Then, the trash is overflowing," Brenda Fisk said.
Fisk lives at the Windgate Square apartments and has pleaded for better living conditions for months, as no one should be allowed to live like this.
"It's so bad, bad enough that I'm preparing to move because it adds stress to your daily life," Fisk said. "Just compounds whatever stress you have."
And Fisk is not alone.
Arianna Smith, another tenant, has lived at Windgate Square for nearly three years and has a similar experience of being without hot water and other functional things in her apartment that should've been fixed a while ago.
"I've got a hole in the roof that's been leaking mold every time it rains, and there's nothing I can do about it," Smith said. "I almost died from mold."
However, this is not the first time these apartments have made headlines. In March, Jacksonville city officials said they're cracking down on code violations at four run-down flats, which have been the subject of complaints of broken windows, mold, high crime and no electricity.
Windgate Square apartments are part of that big four, and tenants like Tommy Russell said they are unhappy about how the owners have run the complex.
"You can't make it right," Russell said. "There is no right in this, so as a resident, I'm appalled... they must do their part."
Russell said that his current situation of not having functioning hot water forced him to devise an alternative and find other places to shower.
"If I pay my rent and have all bills paid, I should have hot water," Russell said. "They should pay us for our pain and suffering because that violates our contract."
We contacted the owners of Windgate Square, but they declined to go on camera. However, the attorney general's office has also been following this situation since they received a court order to investigate further into the owners of the apartments and prevent them from owning anything new.
Fisk said her fight for better living conditions is not over because the residents here deserve to be comfortable in their homes.
"I hope it gets corrected," Fisk said. "People need a place to live... the environments need to be cleaned, which you pay for."