A Report On Management at Ogden Courts

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We were summoned to a meeting on March 19. It was a Home Management Seminar.

When we are relocated it will help us if we have our Certificate of Completion, which we received the same day. The certificate states that we have completed to their satisfaction the Good Neighbor Workshop.

Our attendance was required as a part of us being lease compliant. The speaker was Phillis Davis. She, along with Shirley Hammond and Martha Marshall explained to us how we can be a good neighbors. Phillis asked us, “what would we do if our neighbor was sick and her house were in disarray (dirty)?”

Ms. Armstead replied that she would go into the friends house and clean it for her. Ms. Armstead is the young lady that had the petition signed when the heat was off for three weeks straight. She told Mrs. Davis that she could not find any help afterwards. She couldn’t get in touch with the alderman, or anyone else. On April 7, there was a notice that the heat would be shut off from 10-3. That’s a laugh because the heat hadn’t been on all weekend.

That was the day it snowed. Here at Ogden Courts we have had many complaints about our living conditions, but things are getting better. Some of the residents have gotten brand new apartments, completely rehabbed with new stoves and refrigerators. Some of us are happy now, but there are some who didn’t get the move they were looking for.

One of the people overlooked is Rena Jones. She was the lady I wrote about that has the children with the records from Mt. Sianai Hospital that her two youngest have lead in their systems. The level in each is over 30%. The management did give Rena a job, helping the janitors clean the building. I do think the females do a better job than the men, but I may be biased.

March 20, they called in a sewage truck to suck out the debris in the basement. The rats in the basement are the reason I don’t have a phone, because the rats have bitten the wires. When I lost my keys I was allowed to go into the basement with the janitor, where I saw for myself the condition it was in.

On April 11, the garbage caught fire. There was smoke coming out the garbage shoots on each floor. I wasn’t allowed to go and look. I was asked if we have police protecting our building. I found that we have tenant patrol in our building. I was offered the job but I had to refuse. They want to pay me 25 dollars for 32 hours work. The work consists of the resident spying on their neighbors and keeping the hall clear of wild children. There are other duties.

The elevator is broke again. The lights had been out inside until the elevator broke down completely on the 29th of March. It was rumored that the lights were out because the kids were having sex on the elevator. I was walking up and down the stairs anyway. The elevator came to the first floor, the door comes open and the elevator is still 4 feet up in the air.

I had seen this happen as I waited for it three weeks before. When it happened, a young man jumped out, got under and fixed it himself. The last time one of the kids fell out but did not suffer any serious damage. Management shut it down until they investigated, I was told by the head female janitor on Tuesday. The Com-Ed truck came the following Monday and fixed the wires outside. They replaced the front of the door and started it running again. Monday April 14, it stopped working again.

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