FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ohio — Tenants living in the Galloway Village Apartments in Prairie Township have a little more than three weeks to find a new place to live.
On Monday night, the Prairie Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously to evict all tenants by March 18 due to uninhabitable conditions.
The board of trustees has the authority to repair, demolish and/or secure the site where these apartments are located. The board determined the best course of action is to demolish the buildings sitting on the roughly 14 acres of land occupied by the complex.
Rooms filled with trash, moldy hole-filled walls and buildings that are falling apart at the seams are just some of the conditions tenants living at this complex have been dealing with over the last several months.
"There's lice, bed bugs, obviously rodents in there… the ceilings are caving in, the walls have been busted out, a lot of the copper piping has been removed. There's even human feces and drug paraphernalia in the buildings,” said James Jewell, the administrator for Prairie Township.
Jewell said most of the buildings also don’t have water, electricity or gas. Last year, the sheriff’s office was called to the complex more than 400 times.
Now, tenants have a way out, thanks to Prairie Township leaders stepping in and taking possession of the property last month.
"Once the 18th comes around, we will lock this whole site up we're putting up an 8-foot tall fence,” Jewell said.
Jewell said they’ve been working with their partners in Franklin County to make this happen. He said the public health board is helping the tenants find new housing and assisting with moving costs.
"We were actually thanked by a lot of the residents for moving forward and assisting them,” Jewell said.
Jewell said of the roughly 90 units that were occupied in December, now only about 20 still have tenants. They’re also hiring a contractor to prevent the rodents from spreading out to surrounding areas.
He added this is all to put a stop to a growing nuisance in their community.
"Sometimes these residents, their hands are tied by a lease and they can't break the lease despite the living conditions. So, I just think it's the government's responsibility to step in and address this for them,” Jewell said.
The last day owners of the property can appeal the board of trustees’ decision is this Saturday. Jewell said he hopes to start fencing off the site as soon as Monday, but the demolition likely won’t begin for another six months until enough funding can be raised.