By Aidan Hoey
TAMPA – In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, a local activist, and other speakers described the “deplorable, horrific, and inhumane” conditions that some residents of a North Tampa apartment complex are facing.
Michelle Kelly, founder of Truth Global Ministry, spoke about the living conditions at the Cinnamon Cove Apartments near Fowler Avenue, at a press conference organized by the local Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).
“They have no food, they have no water, they have no home, and they have no direction,” Kelly said. “If you (the property owners) gut out their apartments, where should they go, where should they lay their head?”
When the hurricane made landfall on Oct. 9, the apartment complex on North 15th Street, which is not in a flood zone, was completely flooded. According to residents, water reached as high as waist level for days following the storm.
The apartments are just off Fowler Avenue, where the heavy rains of Milton hit harder than expected, leading to devastating overflow from a nearby lake. Cars were stranded and half underwater, totaling them and leaving people without transportation. Multiple feet of water reached nearly every downstairs apartment, ruining furniture and appliances which can now be seen piled up, lining the surrounding streets.
John Goodman, a resident at the complex, has stayed in three different shelters after the storm, and will stay at his current shelter till Nov. 1. After that, Goodman has no idea where he’s going to sleep.
“It affected me financially and mentally,” Goodman said, “It’s frustrating, because we paid our rent, and now, we don’t know where were going.”
Goodman said the property managers are threatening to evict him if he doesn’t clean out his own apartment, and they aren’t relocating him while repairs are made.
The Tampa chapter of the PSL, a national political advocacy group, visited the complex and decided to set up a press conference outside the property to draw attention to the plight of the residents. PSL is also responsible for numerous protests and political events around the Tampa Bay Region.
“The conditions we found yesterday left us speechless,” PSL member Ruth Beltran said. “We also encountered a mother who, (because of the repairs being done) actually had to stand outside with her baby in her arms for the entire day, (from) 8am until 5pm.” According to Beltran, this mother’s apartment was completely empty after the repairs, with still nowhere to set down her newborn child.
Beltran translated for several residents at the conference, one of them being a tenant who preferred to remain unnamed. “It’s been three days, and the only decision made was to repair the apartments with the people still in them,” the unnamed resident said.
Another person Beltran translated for is former tenant Ana Cecilia Coombs Riveiro. “I was crying out of stress because everything I had, everything I worked for, I lost it all. My son said to me, at least God let you live,” Riveiro said. “I am a sick person, If I stay there, I am going to die. They told me If I don’t like it, I can sign here to leave.” She did leave after that exchange with her property manager, and they still refused to return her deposit.
The National Guard provided some aid to the residents almost a week after landfall. They gave about two dozen boxes of military-issue MREs (packaged ready-to-eat meals), two dozen boxes of emergency drinking water, and around 50 bags of ice to the residents. The MREs are already mostly gone.
The Cinnamon Cove Apartments were contacted but declined to comment and asked the reporter to leave the premises.
