The deplorable living conditions at Eureka Gardens on the Westside have been in the news for months in Jacksonville, but News4Jax found conditions are far worse at three of the Rev. Richard Hamlet's apartment complexes in Memphis.
They're properties that failed inspections by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The conditions are so bad that families claim they are still falling ill, even after the CEO of Global Ministries Foundation vowed to make things better.
"I have made some mistakes here. I admit it," Hamlet said in April in Tennessee.
Seven months after Hamlet promised to right the wrongs at the Goodwill Apartment complex in Memphis, Hamlet's tenants, the city's poorest residents, said they are still living in wretched conditions. Single mothers with several children, the disabled and the elderly, blame Hamlet.
READ: Eureka investigation leads to Memphis
"Yes, he did come. They all came down here in vans and trucks. They stayed down here for a week and they still ain't fixed nothing. They haven't been back
down here," said Quanderia Dorsey, who has lived in Goodwill for the past three years.
She said Hamlet's management team has done little about the black mold and the condition of the bathrooms. She said the water coming out of her faucet is brown, and her son is sick.
"From the mildew and from the water," Dorsey added.
Twenty miles away, at another one of Hamlet's properties -- Warren Apartments -- News4Jax saw pronounced
electrical dangers and sewage dripping from an above bathroom into another resident's bathroom below.
Warren Apartments had more than 190 city code violations between 2011 and 2014, including gas and water leaks and mold and bug infestations, according to city records.
The residents News4Jax spoke to at the Warren Apartments pay anywhere from $300 to $500 a month for rent. Many said they want to move somewhere else, but they have nowhere else to go.
"It's being done in the name of God and with taxpayer money. This is an outrage," said Brad Watkins with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in Memphis.
Watkins has been following the condition of Hamlet's apartments in
Jacksonville, where just last week at Eureka Gardens, a major gas leak was discovered. Based on these facts, it's his opinion that Jacksonville residents can expect little to change.
"These people are slumlords, plain and simple. Their apologies are meaningless because their apologies are only followed with half measures and doing just enough to get by," said Watkins. "The experience we've seen here in Memphis, why would he do any different in Jacksonville?"
News4Jax took these concerns to Hamlet's Global Ministries Foundation office in Memphis, where Hamlet said the challenges in Memphis and Jacksonville are different.
"There were physical issues with
these properties that were even different than Eureka, and we've been working hard, and we're going to get this right," Hamlet told News4Jax.
Hamlet said that when he purchased the Memphis properties beginning in 2009, they were in far worse condition than Jacksonville's Eureka Gardens or Cleveland Arms. Hamlet said he brought 45 Memphis apartments up to code earlier this year, after families were forced to evacuate. Hamlet also said crime in Memphis helped hinder his progress.
"The challenges of them with the physical conditions and the security costs, which were two-and-a-half times more than what they were in the past -- HUD doesn't increase rent for that. It's all bedded into the structure, and it's all about trying to operate the business," Hamlet said.
Hamlet admitted he's never been able to get out in front of the repairs. Instead, he said he's been responding to the housing crisis on a case-by-case basis. For many, that's not enough, because records show Hamlet's foundation, which owns properties in eight states, received $61 million in federal subsidies
just last year.
"I mean, look at this. He wouldn't live like this. Why make other people live like this? You're a man of God. You're supposed to take care of your house. That's in the Bible," said resident Alexis Adams.
HUD officials admitted to News4Jax off camera that the federal agency simply doesn't have eyes and ears on the ground in Memphis to keep a close eye on these apartment complexes. For example, in Memphis, there are more than 20 federal subsidized housing complexes and not one multifamily HUD office, which oversees and inspects them. The closest multifamily HUD resources to Memphis are in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee.