Residents, City Councilmembers Decry Uninhabitable Conditions of Shaker Square Apartments

Shaker Square residents and Cleveland City Councilmembers this week publicly called for action from Shaker Heights Apartment Owner LLC, the New-York ownership group of three properties that tenants say are unlivable.

Residents say they’ve been plagued by black mold, water leaks, electrical problems, lack of heat and more.

“We have been in and out of that office,” said resident Chimene Anderson. “We have been lied to, deceived. All they say is, ‘It’s going to be fixed. We have the plumber coming, the heating people coming, it’s going to be ready.’’’

Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin of Ward 6 and council member Deborah Gray of Ward 4 gathered with residents and neighbors for a news conference Monday.

“I have called them everyday for the last two weeks. They answered the phone one time. After they realized who I was they have not responded since,” said Gray. “I got a ticket, I’m going to New York to meet two of these landlords just to see if they will sit down and talk to me as a councilperson so I can understand and see what they will do because their time is up.”

Through freezing temperatures, ten apartment units have not had heat for two years. To keep warm, tenants have had to resort to dangerous measures.

Anderson said she has to use “one space heater, because if you use two, it’s going to blow a fuse. So, you have to open your oven as well. I put mine on 400 and I have to sleep with it open.”

Griffin says council is working to take legal action against the property owner, which is majority owned by the Chetrit family, according to cleveland.com.

“We have pushed and worked with the administration — the director of building and housing — as well as the law department, to have legal action to create a civil nuisance abatement,” said Griffin. “Basically, what we’re trying to do is if they’re not going to take care of their propert,y we’re going to take legal action to take it from them or try to do something to hold them accountable. I myself hope that the judge or whoever makes one of these owners actually live in the conditions that they’re creating.”

According to tenants, the trouble started when Shaker Heights Apartment Owner LLC bought the residences.

“We were treated like the best people on the face of the Earth,” said resident Regina Burton. “In a matter of four years here we are.”

Residents suspect they are intentionally being driven out in a practice Griffin called "eviction by neglect".

"I think that there are people who want to diminish the value of the property so that they can come in and try to drive people out," Griffin said. "[Tenants] have a right to stay here and we’re going to fight for them.”

Beyond dealing with the immediate neglect, resident Tony Dial wants council to pass preventative legislation.

Legislation so that “If you buy a multi-dwelling building you cannot be hiding under an LLC marker. You cannot be someone who lives in another state without a representative here," Dial said.

Neglectful out-of-state landlords have been a growing problem in recent years, and Cleveland has considered a number of approaches to remedy the problem.


Until then, residents, who have been paying as much as $900 a month in rent, will be working with the Cleveland Municipal Housing Court to create an escrow account for future payments, hopefully driving the owners to finally fix something.

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