Home Care In Gadsden, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Rats, black mold and leaking ceilings are just some of the problems some families living in the Gadsden Green neighborhood said they are facing every day.

For some background, Gadsden Green is a property of the Charleston Housing Authority. The Charleston Housing Authority is an independent nonprofit that seeks to provide housing to citizens on low to moderate incomes.

Gadsden Green resident Brittany Muckelvaney said their living conditions are unsafe and unacceptable.

She said three of her daughters have asthma and are constantly sick because of conditions like mold, dirty air filters and a leaking roof. Muckelvaney said they’re also dealing with electrical problems, holes in the air ducts, rats and rat feces.

“If you could see the fecal matter I have to sweep up on the daily. I have children with asthma, there are rats coming in and out,” Muckelvaney said.

Another resident, Vanessa Brown, said their living conditions have been horrendous, catching over 30 rats in just over two years.

“Just because we live in public housing doesn’t mean we are uneducated, it doesn’t mean we are ignorant,” Brown said.

Brown’s daughter, Ericka Perez, said this is their first experience in public housing, and it’s worse than they thought it would be.

“We don’t matter, not to them,” Perez said. “We’re not living here because we’re dirty, or lazy, or uneducated, we live here because we have children. And the income that we have is not enough sometimes.”

The President and CEO of the Charleston Housing Authority, Arthur Milligan, said they’re aware some of the units need to be worked on.

He said they are in the process of implementing the Rental Assistance Demonstration program that will allow them to go in and do some major work in the next two to four years.

“It goes along with the fact that the building is 83 years old and has not had any major rehab in that period of time,” Milligan said. “We understand the residents here are having some hard times and we continue to try to make sure they’re being taken care of.”

In the meantime, he said he recommends residents let their property managers know about problems they are having, and if no progress is made, he suggests they continue to complain up the food chain.

“If the units are in bad shape they have to let us know, and we are going to be doing more inspections than we have been doing in the past,” Milligan said.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The fight for better living conditions in the Gadsden Green neighborhood continues.

Gadsden Green is a property of the Charleston Housing Authority, a nonprofit that provides housing to citizens on low to moderate incomes.

State Representatives, Community Leaders and Gadsden Green Residents gathered Friday to talk about the plan to improve living conditions in the neighborhood.

Rats, black mold and leaking ceilings are just a few of the problems some families living in the Gadsden Green neighborhood said they are facing every day.

An attorney representing several of the residents, Vanisa Brown, said she has seen these conditions first-hand.

“It appears that, at a minimum, property management has adopted indifference and hostility toward the residents of Gadsden Green,” Brown said.

State Representative Wendell Gilliard, who called Friday’s meeting, said the Gadsden Green neighborhood has been neglected for far too long.

“Our responsibility as leaders in the community is to make sure that these children, these women, these men, have a quality of life,” Gilliard said.

Some of the actionable items presented at Friday’s meeting included inviting the Charleston Public Housing Director and representatives from DHEC and HUD to a walkthrough of the units on Monday at 5:30 p.m.

The Community Resource Center will be onsite at Monday’s walkthrough to hand out food, hygiene products and baby supplies to residents.

“We cannot have third-world conditions in Charleston, South Carolina,” Louis Smith, the executive director of the Community Resource Center, said. “At this point, it becomes a humanitarian issue.”

Gilliard said he’s also reached out to MUSC to get residents tested for impacts of mold and rat feces, and suggested Gadsden merges with the Westside Neighborhood Association to keep elected officials engaged.

“I feel a lot more hopeful, hopeful that, seeing so many people get involved and take the time out of their day to be here with us, hopefully, they can get something done,” Gadsden Green resident Brittany Muckelvaney said.

The Chairman of the board that oversees the Charleston Housing Authority, Herb Partlow, said it’s important to note that not every unit in the neighborhood is in disrepair.

He said since Live 5′s story aired last week staff initiated a “maintenance blitz” where they accessed all 264 units. They completed quick repairs and submitted work orders for more long-term projects. Partlow said he also took a tour of the units himself and wrote to city leaders.

“While looking at the story, I’ll be the first to say the conditions are unacceptable. The camera doesn’t lie. What I’ve told our team and the rest of our staff is we have to own it, first and foremost, make no excuses, and do something about it,” Partlow said.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — The fight to save what remains of Gadsden Creek continues.

Local advocacy groups have appealed a judge’s decision to allow developer WestEdge Foundation to fill and cap the nearly four-acre tidal creek.

Read More: Gadsden Creek and SCLEP file an appeal against court's decision to side with WestEdge

Members of "Friends of Gadsden Creek" and "Charleston Area Justice Ministry" protested Friday morning just blocks from Southeast Wildlife Exposition (SEWE) festivities. They invited expo attendees to join them in their calls for the City of Charleston to restore and revitalize the creek.

“When we talk about conservation and protecting wildlife, we must talk about Gadsden Creek,” said Lin Kuhl Joy, a member of both FOGC and CAJM. “The city continues dumping its sins, telling half-truths and lies about contamination, lack of funding, and the true impact of this development.”

In December, a judge ruled in favor of WestEdge, citing the "unique hurdle of a naturalized drainage ditch for a landfill that is now being contaminated by that landfill."

Local advocacy groups call on City of Charleston to restore and revitalize Gadsden Creek. (WCIV)

Protestors said measures to prevent flooding were never taken by the city.

“The city could have easily answered the problem of tide water flooding long before now with simple solutions that they are already using in other parts of the city with higher income bracket,” said CAJM Flooding Steering Committee Member, Michelle Brandt.

The City of Charleston provided ABC News 4 with an Army Corps of Engineers permit from 2009, stating the Corps would not authorize proposed mitigation activities in this area because "the potential negative impacts associated with excavating a portion of a former landfill and restoring tidal flow to this area far outweighs the potential environmental benefits."

Read More: 'Fight is far from over': Friends of Gadsden Creek respond to DHEC ruling

Members of the Westside community agree action needs to be taken against flooding, but said they refuse to ignore deeper issues of gentrification.

“We know that whatever is developed in the future in the next few years, if the city moves forward, will lead to the displacement of scores and scores of black families,” said FOGC Co-Chair and Charleston Mayoral Candidate Mika Gadsden. “We’re asking the city to do right and save the Gadsden Creek."

WestEdge said the short-term goal for the area is to provide flooding relief and protection from pollution and contamination, adding this appeal will only delay relief and force residents to suffer.