LITTLE ROCK, Ark.- Your first apartment should feel like freedom, but for one Little Rock woman, it quickly became more like a prison.
The woman still lives in this apartment complex, so we aren’t using its name or showing its exterior to help protect her from further retaliation.
Like a lot of 18 year olds, Zakyrah Gilbert couldn’t wait to get her own place.
“So excited,” says Gilbert. “Slept on the floor for two days before I could get my bed in.”
She moved into her new apartment to find it was already home to someone else.
“Ants,” she recalls. “I had them really, really, really bad.”
Gilbert says the unwanted roommates were relentless, biting her and her young daughter.
Then, she says they were soon accompanied by other bugs, like roaches.
She says a maintenance guy busted a hole in her bathroom trying to fix a plumbing problem.
“They came inside my home when I was asleep and broke all of this, due to the home downstairs that no one stays in,” Gilbert says. “I mean, it was really nasty. I still can’t use my sink.”
She says when she spoke up to complain, management struck back.
“They never gave me any warnings,” says Gilbert. “It was just on my door when I woke up.”
Gilbert was soon slapped with what she calls futile violations, first for $50, then $150, then $350 for things like “inappropriate behavior with the property manager”. A fourth violation would mean eviction.
“Not threatening, never tried to fight her, never went and called her B’s,” she says. “It was just a disagreement.”
“It’s unhealthy and unsafe to me,” says Nacole Gilbert, Zakyrah’s mom.
Nacole Gilbert says she’s experienced her fair share of bad landlords. She’s tried, but failed to help her daughter in her apartment dispute.
“I think Arkansas is probably the only state that don’t protect us,” Nacole Gilbert says. “We have no protection. If you don’t like it, I can throw you out.”
In fact, tenants’ rights activists have called the Natural State the worst place to rent in the country, because it’s the only state with an “Implied Warranty of Habitability”. That means Arkansas landlords have zero obligation to make repairs or ensure rental properties are in a livable condition.
Forty-six percent of Little Rock residents rent their homes, which is higher than both the state and national averages.
A study presented to city leaders earlier this summer examined the direct connection between housing and health.
It found living in general substandard conditions, like the plumbing and pest issues Zakyrah faced, led to “psychological behavior dysfunctions”, elevated blood lead levels and even higher risks of child maltreatment.
Many renters in Little Rock are forced to live in unhealthy situations, without the financial means to get out, and some who fear they’ll be kicked out should they speak out.
“That’s insulting, it’s offensive and it angers me,” says Ken Richardson, City Director for Ward 2.
Richardson represents the ward where Zakyrah lives, and says he’s known some “Misery Merchant” landlords who capitalize on the lack of tenants’ rights.
“They’re not concerned about the people living in those facilities,” says Richardson. “They’re more concerned about keeping them occupied.”
We didn’t want to make any assumptions, so we went to Zakyrah’s property managers to get their side of the story.
The managers never returned emails sent to them. They did, however, call the cops.
“We have got to have some better laws to protect the tenants,” says Nacole Gilbert.
While some of that change would have to start at the state level, Director Richardson feels there’s more the city can do, too.
“I think we need to have the penalties strict enough, harsh enough that it makes owners and managers address those issues that are unhealthy,” says Richardson.
As for Zakyrah, her main focus is just finding a new place to live.
“I don’t wish this on no one,” Zakyrah says.
Because this wasn’t what she signed up for when she signed that lease on the dotted line.
Several lawmakers, including St. Rep. Greg Leding (D-Fayetteville), have tried but failed to pass a “Warranty of Habitability” in the past. Leding had said he’s committed to trying again during the 2019 Legislative Session.
As for Zakyrah, she is still living at that apartment complex, but says she’s still trying to figure out how to break her lease and move.