Ashton Heights Apartment building flooded with raw sewage, residents say management has done nothing to clean up the waste

Published: Jun. 28, 2022 at 6:40 PM EDT

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - A building at the Ashton Heights Apartments is flooded with raw sewage. Residents told WDBJ7 the flooding happened on Saturday. Apartments were still covered on Tuesday with no signs of clean up efforts.

Taniah Ferguson lives at the apartment building with her three-year-old son. She explained how management has not made any efforts to remove the waste.

“The water’s just been sitting,” Ferguson said. “Nobody’s came to try and just clean it up.”

After spending the weekend out of town, she came back to her apartment flooded with raw sewage.

“It’s really stressful, because you know it would be nice to just be able to come home and feel safe and not have to worry about my son getting sick,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson explained this isn’t the first time her apartment was flooded with sewage. She told WDBJ7 this has been a problem for the last two years.

“It’s happened countless of times but within the last two months its been a lot more frequent, like every other week,” Ferguson said.

After speaking with neighbors, WDBJ7 reached out to the Roanoke Health Department, Ashton Heights Apartments property managers and the city of Roanoke. In an email, the Roanoke Health department said they haven’t received any recent complaints. The health department is now looking into past complaints with the apartment building.

WDBJ7 reached out to property managers multiple times on Tuesday for more information. The Ashton Heights Apartment managers refused to comment on the issue and asked WDBJ7 to leave the property immediately.

“When I talked to the people in the office, it’s like they’re not really worried,” Ferguson said. “They don’t really care.”

As rent and housing prices continue to go up, Ferguson explained she doesn’t have any other option but to stay at the apartment building.

“I can’t just up and find a new apartment, plus a lot of places are booked and right now this is the only convenient place that I have,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson and her son are staying with friends and family because it’s unsafe to stay in the apartment.

“He’s used to being home and then I have him everyday saying, ‘Mommy I want to go home’, but I can’t even take him to a home that he’s comfortable with,” Ferguson said.

Ashton Heights Apartments property managers refused to give WDBJ7 any additional information about when residents can expect maintenance crews to fix the sewage. Roanoke city officials told WDBJ7 the property management is relocating residents while a contractor is on site, but residents said they haven’t heard from property managers about a temporary relocation.

Roanoke city officials told WDBJ7 city code enforcement staff is monitoring the situation.

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