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.

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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. (WCSC) - One Gadsden Green resident said she believes she is being targeted by the Charleston Housing Authority for speaking out against living conditions in the housing complex.

Gadsden Green is a public housing complex owned by the Charleston Housing Authority; a nonprofit that provides housing for moderate to low-income residents.

“Here in Gadsden Green, I guess they call me the ‘whistleblower.’ It’s why a lot of the tenants say I’m receiving what I’m receiving, and why they didn’t speak up,” resident Brittany Muckelvaney said. “They weren’t willing to go through this, and at this point, I’m not sure if I am either.”

Muckelvaney first spoke to Live 5 News in early September. At the time, she and several other residents spoke about the rats, black mold, and leaking ceilings they said they dealt with on a daily basis.

Since then, Muckelvaney has spoken to Live 5 News several times and stood alongside Rep. Wendell Gilliard and other state and community leaders during a press conference about living conditions in the complex.

Muckelvaney and several other residents have also filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Charleston Housing Authority because of the “egregious deplorability” of living conditions.

The attorney representing the Gadsden Green residents in that lawsuit, Vanisa Brown, said she believes the Charleston Housing Authority is using “arbitrary” fines to harass Muckelvaney. She said none of her other clients named in that lawsuit are being “targeted” like Muckelvaney.

“They’re using that as a tool to harass her and retaliate against her for doing what, really she should have done, which is make her voice heard,” Brown said.

Brown and Muckelvaney said she has received three fines in two weeks: two for leaving her trash can on the curb, and one for trash in her front yard.

Within the two-week period, they said she also received a letter stating that “several deficiencies” were found in her home during a maintenance visit, and that there would be various random inspections of her home moving forward.

“If you fail to meet the housekeeping standards, the Housing Authority will terminate your lease,” the letter reads.

Gilliard, who has advocated for improved living conditions in Gadsden Green after seeing Live 5′s coverage, said during a meeting with Housing Authority Officials he spoke specifically about preventing retaliation against residents.

He said the CEO and President of the Charleston Housing Authority, Arthur Milligan, assured him that if there was evidence of any type of harassment, he would take immediate action.

“That was his commitment, that was his promise, and quite frankly, we’re going to hold him up to it,” Gilliard said.

The Charleston Housing Authority Provided the following statement:

The Housing Authority is not aware of its harassment towards any resident. We will not try cases in the press, nor will we comment on unsubstantiated allegations by the Plaintiff and their Attorney. We will, however, continue to work diligently towards our mission and look forward to defending this case in the court of law.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.