NEW HAVEN -- Families in the Church Street South Apartment complex say they're living the American nightmare.
"We live like animals here," said Jessica Rivera, a 17-year resident. "It's sad to say it, but this is the truth. This is where we live."
Rivera gave Fox CT a tour of her small apartment, where she's been trying to take care of four children and a husband recently bound to a wheelchair. The apartment was full of black mold, crumbling walls, poorly maintained utilities and general disarray. Rivera says she's complained about the mold for years, only to be handed a bottle of bleach.
The apartment is also not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"It makes me very angry," said Alderperson Dolores Colon. "I think it's a total disrespect for people who occupy those apartments and I think it might be racial too because the majority if people who live there are either black or Hispanic."
The property is registered to Massachusetts-based Northland Investment Corp.
Colon says there is pending litigation against the management company and that the city is working to try and get some residents relocated to better housing.
Fox CT reached out to Northland for a comment on the conditions its tenants are living in, but have yet to receive a response.
