Image of raid on Barbara Gaskins' apartment. (Photo: Screenshot from Facebook live)
Barbara Gaskins (Courtesy Photo)In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Clubway Apartments in Greenville, North Carolina, was an “amazing” place, Barbara Gaskins remembers.
“When I was in high school, we used to come over here, all of us as teenagers,” said Gaskins, now 43. “There was a pool and a clubhouse. It was amazing back in the day.”
Gaskins is now a tenant at the 1960s-era apartment complex, and claims neglectful management and ownership has allowed it to deteriorate to the point where tenants’ health is at risk.
In recent months, Gaskins has been a strident critic of management at the apartment complex. She’s complained to city officials and posted videos on her social media feed showing falling ceiling tiles that she says expose mold, bathtubs that don’t drain and half-hearted attempts at repairs.
A woman who answered the phone at Clubway Apartments identified herself as a member of its management team. She declined to discuss tenants’ concerns with NC Newsline. And a man with Apartment Advantage Group LLC (AAG), the complex’s Panama City, Florida-based management firm, declined to identify himself or to discuss the matter when reached by phone, telling a reporter that the firm is “not commenting on any of that.” Multiple messages left with Greenville’s code enforcement department were not returned.
North Carolina law guarantees tenants the right to safe, habitable housing, privacy, protection from discrimination and the right to proper eviction procedures. It also limits security deposits to up to two months’ rent and prevents landlord retaliation.
Barbara Gaskins has criticized the condition of Clubway Apartments in Greenville, and posted images of disrepair on social media. (Photo: Barbara Gaskins)Then-attorney general Josh Stein reminded tenants of their rights to safe housing in a March 2024 column about unscrupulous contractors and the challenges homeowners and renters face.
“Landlords are required to provide their tenants with a fit premises,” Stein wrote. “If you discover that something needs to be fixed, ask to have it repaired. Let your landlord know about the problem immediately over the telephone or in person, but follow up with a written request and keep a copy of it for yourself.”
If the landlord refuses to make repairs or remedy the condition in a reasonable period of time, Stein wrote, you may file a complaint with your local authorities, such as a code enforcement agency or fire and safety inspector.
But Nick MacLeod with the North Carolina Tenants Union says those steps aren’t always enough to get problems resolved for low-income renters.
The North Carolina Tenants Union, a statewide tenant advocacy group created 18 months ago, has had notable success organizing tenants across the state to fight against high rents, unlawful evictions and substandard rentals.
Most recently, the union helped Durham tenants win an amendment to the city’s housing code that prohibits landlords from collecting rent if a housing unit is found to be “imminently dangerous” to tenants’ health and safety.
NC Tenants Union executive director Nick MacLeod (Photo: Screenshot/NC Newsline)MacLeod, the union’s executive director, said some tenants feel trapped in substandard housing because low-income residents often can’t afford higher-end, higher quality rentals.
“When we talk to folks about why they stay,” MacLeod said, “the answer is ‘Well, this place is dangerous, but it is probably better than sleeping under an overpass.’”
People who have been incarcerated, have poor credit or an eviction on their record are often forced into substandard housing because the bar to rent is lower, MacLeod said.
“What are the other options folks have, given that it’s often so hard to find an affordable place to live and moving is quite expensive?” MacLeod said.
Nina Woods says she turned to the Red Cross for help when the ceiling in her Clubway Apartment came down, exposing mold.
Woods is a dialysis patient, and she’s concerned about her health. “I have a catheter in my chest, so I’m not even supposed to be breathing these toxins in at all,” Woods said.
The Red Cross provided money for a hotel and food after the incident, but only enough for a few days, she said.
“After that, I was right back in the apartment and they [Red Cross] told me that was a one-time thing,” Woods said.
Woods lives with her 13-year-old son. She has begun to limit her grandchildren’s visits, concerned about exposing them to mold.
Gaskins and Woods pay around $1,000 a month each for their two-bedroom apartments they share with their children. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Greenville is $1,200 per month, according to ZillowRentals. Gaskins said higher-end apartments can cost $1,800 or more per month.
“That’s kind of what the hardship is, because it’s hard to find affordable housing,” Gaskins said, adding that the same group that manages Clubway Apartments also manages several of the other lower-cost apartment complexes in Greenville.
Gaskins says water and sewer lines failed in early October at Clubway Apartments in Greenville. (Photo: Barbara Gaskins)In early October, Gaskins and other tenants reached their breaking point after water and sewer lines at the apartment complex malfunctioned, leaving them without water and sewer service for several days.
Gaskins reached out to city council members and the city’s code enforcement team to alert them about living conditions at Clubway Apartments.
“We couldn’t use the bathroom, we couldn’t do anything,” Gaskins said. “There was raw sewage in some people’s apartments. I mean, it was bad.”
City officials, Gaskin said, told tenants that the apartment complex’s management must be given “reasonable time” to make repairs. Tenants are still waiting to see what happens while they live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, she said.
“I don’t think asking to be able to go and use the bathroom or to be able to go to the sink and get some water, I don’t think that’s asking too much,” Gaskins said.
NC Newsline left multiple messages with Greenville code enforcement officials, but they did not respond.
On Oct. 28, a little more than two weeks after Gaskins stepped up complaints, she was awakened by what she described as a team of eight to 12 sheriff’s deputies.
They had been sent to raid her apartment after receiving an erroneous tip from a “trusted” confidential informant that she had drugs stashed in the apartment. No drugs were found and no charges were filed against Gaskins.
Still, Gaskins was handcuffed in front of her two sons, ages 10 and 14. Her 18-month-old daughter was not at the apartment during the raid.
“They were frozen,” Gaskins said of her sons. “They didn’t know what to think. I didn’t want to show them that I was upset and get them upset. I tried to stay as calm as possible.”
Gaskins believes her criticism of management at Clubway Apartments led to the raid on her home. She is convinced someone at the apartment complex falsely reported that she was dealing drugs.
While the raid took place, an apartment manager was in the parking lot recording it, said Gaskins, who shared a copy of the recording with NC Newsline.
“The whole while of this so-called drug raid, the apartment managers were outside going live on Facebook, saying that because I wanted to air them out [by reporting problems at the apartment complex], they were going to air me out,” Gaskins said, “and that it was a drug raid and they felt vindicated and wanted to see me come downstairs in handcuffs.”
Gaskins is in the early stages of preparing a lawsuit, which she said could include claims that her Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful searches and seizures were violated. Gaskins said she is also considering a defamation claim because her “political career has been completely destroyed” by the news of a drug raid on her apartment. Gaskins is a community activist and former congressional and mayoral candidate.
Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance (Photo: Pitt County Sheriff’s Office)Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance has apologized to Gaskins and acknowledged the raid was a mistake. She said it occurred after a longtime, trusted informant got the apartment number wrong, sending deputies to Gaskins’ apartment. The informant, Dance said, has no connection to the management at Clubway Apartments.
Dance knows Gaskins. She follows her on social media and even considered hiring her for a program at the Pitt County Detention Center. Dance said she can see how the timing of the raid could lead Gaskins to believe deputies were used to get back at her.
The fact that an apartment manager live-streamed the raid further fueled Gaskins’s thinking that the raid was a “set up,” Dance said.
“I can guarantee you that this sheriff will never allow my office to be weaponized against anybody, let alone somebody I know personally,” Dance said, “It is just all an unfortunate set of circumstances.”
MacLeod, the tenant union’s executive director, said it’s important for tenants in substandard rentals to band together to fight for improvements. Doing so, he said, makes it more difficult for landlords to retaliate against tenants.
“Ask yourself, ‘How many people would I feel safe going to do this with?’ and that will help you have a sense of whether we need 30% of the complex signed on to this, or 50% or 80%,” MacLeod said. “Get enough people before you go public to fight for the real big things.”
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