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For months Brigette Babington’s East Greensboro apartment has been a source of constant frustration. Her heat, a vital need in the winter, doesn’t work. Part of her floor is sinking in, making parts of the apartment unsafe. Some windows in her unit are screwed shut, raising concerns about what she should do if a fire were to break out.
Then there’s the electricity, which only works in some rooms.
“The electric in my kitchen is out,” Babington, who has lived at the New Garden Place Apartments since 2022, told The Thread last month. “I have to take an extension cord from my living room just to make a cup of coffee in the morning.”
Babington isn’t alone. In recent months, at least 17 other residents at the complex have complained of substandard living conditions.
They’ve pointed to leaking ceilings, mold, and pest infestations. They’ve alleged housing discrimination and said their landlord refuses to do maintenance. They’ve gone before the Greensboro City Council to demand action.
Instead, they say, property management has met the complaints with increased rents and retaliatory threats of eviction.
As the issues mount, housing advocates and city officials say the problems at the apartment complex highlight deeper housing problems in Greensboro: a pronounced lack of teeth for enforcing housing ordinances. As city leaders work to address local housing issues from homelessness, a limited number of units available in the city, and the need for more affordable housing, advocates say more attention should be paid to the quality of what is available.
“Half of the city are renters, and home ownership is going down in the city, so most people will likely stay renters,” said Terrell Dungee, a community organizer with the American Friends Service Committee of North Carolina who has been working with the New Garden residents since the summer. “There just needs to be more investment in how the rental experience is for folks.”
Local advocates also want more tools to hold landlords accountable when they fail to repair properties and provide livable conditions. A coordinated advocacy effort calling attention to the issues at New Garden Place has often called out the property owner, real estate investor Srinivas Potluri, by name. Potluri, a business owner whose LLCs manage some 2,400 housing units across North and South Carolina, purchased the New Garden complex and two other Greensboro properties in December 2023.
In online profiles, Potluri describes himself as a manager interested in “focusing on strategic renovations that quickly improve property appeal, occupancy rates, and rental income,” and that he is committed “to quality and tenant satisfaction.” But residents say he is leaving tenants to languish in unsafe apartments.
Linda Bethea, a longtime resident of New Garden often called “Mama Linda” by her neighbors, told The Thread she lived in the complex comfortably for more than nine years. But shortly after it was purchased by Potluri, Bethea said she lost heat in her unit this past February.
“My husband and my two grandchildren, they all caught the flu because it was cold,” she said. In a lawsuit filed in October, Bethea said the unit was not repaired despite a city code compliance inspector finding “multiple Chapter 11 housing violations.” The heat was not restored until November, shortly after she moved out. The unit was then gutted and fixed before another resident was moved in.
Other residents say their struggles to get their units serviced are not a coincidence. They say the property is intentionally discriminating against its lower-income Black residents in an effort to push them out and raise rents. Shortly after Babington and Bethea addressed the city council in a November meeting, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said the city was looking into the housing discrimination claims, and had moved to involve the attorney general’s office.
“The electric in my kitchen is out. I have to take an extension cord from my living room just to make a cup of coffee in the morning.”
But for residents looking to have their issues resolved quickly, there have been few paths for relief. City officials say they must follow a strict procedure when handling the complaints and want to avoid condemning the property, a move that would force all of the residents to leave.
Potluri meanwhile, has not responded to the complaints publicly and has been silent as violations at the complex have racked up thousands in fines. Potluri did not respond to voicemails and emails requesting comment, and calls to the New Garden Place Apartments management office were not answered.
It’s led to frustrations for residents like Annette Roseboro, who has lived at the apartment complex for eight years.
“They told me we’re going up on your rent and I said I don’t know what you’re going up for because you haven’t did a damn thing,” she said in an interview with a group of New Garden Place residents last month.
Still, housing advocates say, their effort is still bearing fruit. Days before Christmas, New Garden residents and housing advocates joined together for a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”- themed protest, where residents shared their concerns.
During the event, residents also submitted a list of demands including calls for complex management to address maintenance issues, create parking, and other accommodations to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and refund the rents of tenants living in apartments with active code violations.
As the event closed, the residents said they would continue to fight for fair housing not just for themselves but for tenants across Greensboro. This week, a coalition of residents and local housing advocates plan to speak before the city council yet again, the start of what they hope will be a productive year in the fight for better housing in the city.
The coming weeks, Dungee says, will be about continuing to push for urgently needed solutions.
“We’re in the middle of winter,” he said. “People are still without the tools to make their homes feel safe.”
P.R. Lockhart is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly and a Report for America corps member. She previously reported for the Mountain State Spotlight and Vox, and studied psychology and journalism at Duke University.