When the city of Gardner in eastern Kansas ordered Aspen Place apartments closed for unsafe living conditions last May, Candice Montgomery came home to a frantic neighborhood. She and other residents of the Gardner housing complex only had 48 hours to leave their homes. “It was total chaos,” Montgomery said. “My neighbors are everywhere, people are crying. My elderly neighbors didn’t know what they were going to do.” Gardner officials had warned the owners of the property dozens of times that the apartments were not safe, largely because of water and sewage issues. The final straw came when a firetruck sank into a street in the complex while responding to an emergency. The city condemned the property the next day, and hundreds of tenants were homeless because their landlord failed to act.
Read more: KLC Journal
