TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – Seniors at Collingwood Green Senior Housing are banding together, asking for better living conditions. They’re petitioning Lucas Metropolitan Housing, which owns the building, for help with a laundry list of problems that include rats and roaches.
“This is one of LMHA’s best properties and they’re neglecting it,” said Jeffrey White.
45 residents from the 65-unit building at Collingwood Green have put pen to paper, petitioning the housing authority.
“It’s about trying to get things changed around here,” White said. “Because they’re not changing anything around here.”
These residents say they’ve been dealing with roaches in their apartments. They claim only some units have been exterminated, asking for the whole building to be done.
“Roaches run, they go from apartment to apartment, they even go under the wall, they can live in the wall,” Wanda Love, another resident, said.
White said he’s put cameras in his unit to document it all. Security camera video shows the exterminator coming in and looking around for a few seconds, but then leaving. White says he’s never seen them actually spray for pests.
“What I had to do was go buy my own exterminator stuff and exterminate myself because they’re not going to do it,” he said.
That’s not the only critter they said they’ve seen.
“Tennent’s be inside the community room and have literally seen huge rats come up to the door,” Love said. “They didn’t get in, but they eventually will.”
The building is for anyone 55 and over, but some people living at Collingwood Green said kids from the nearby townhomes have been inside the building.
“They be in the stairwell, they be in the halls, they be knocking on folks’ doors,” Love said.
Toledo police confirmed they responded to a call of kids in the building earlier this month.
Residents say they want stricter security.
The group said they met with the housing authority about these issues a few months ago.
“Went down to LMHA, they did promises, they didn’t do anything,” Love said.
Wednesday, residents say a letter was left on their door from Nelson and Associates, the building’s management company. It lists the dates inspections and pest control were completed. It says all the units were inspected for roaches in December, and since then, bi-weekly extermination is completed, going floor by floor.
The letter also claims no rodent presence has been reported.
It also says people should not be loitering in the building and encourages residents to be careful about not letting people in who aren’t their guests.
Lucas Metropolitan Housing issued this statement to 13 Action News:
“The comfort and safety of residents at all Lucas Metropolitan Housing (LMH) properties is our top priority. We understand some residents of the Collingwood Green community have expressed concerns. The Lucas Metropolitan Housing team continues to work diligently to address and resolve these reports as quickly as possible. Records show LMH’s timely responsiveness to Collingwood Green concerns is proving effective, efficient, and appreciated by its residents. Collingwood Green’s redevelopment is a key component of Toledo’s efforts to revitalize its downtown area, and LMH is committed to helping improve the overall quality of life for its residents.”
Residents at Collingwood Green said they still want more to be done, and their issues to be fixed.
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This article was published by WTVG on 2025-07-31 18:50:00
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