Members of the Jackson Housing Task Force gathered Monday afternoon to discuss the ongoing relocation efforts at Blossom Apartments and rental inspections during their second meeting since forming.

One member of the task force, Stacey Patrick, has been a resident of the south Jackson complex for nearly 17 years. JXN Water, the city’s privately run water utility, discontinued services to Blossom Apartments in late July after its owner had long failed to pay the bill.

“When they fall short, we are still hurt,” Patrick said during the meeting. “We are the ones that are still hurt. Is there anything they could put in place that it wouldn’t affect us?”

In addition to living without water, Patrick said she and her husband, Robert, have been working daily for the last month on applications for apartments around Jackson. The search has been difficult, she said, because many places require security deposits and proof of salary up to three times the amount of the rent. 

“It’s very hard. It’s not easy,” Patrick said. “It’s not like it used to be where there’s a sign, you call them and you can get into a place. I’ve never seen it like this before.”

Patrick hoped they had finally gotten a break with Arbor Park Apartments, but after paying nearly $1,600 to claim a unit, once it was time to move in, it was uninhabitable, trashed and filthy.

“She (the property manager) had us believing that we were supposedly getting into a place for a whole month,” she told Mississippi Today. “She kept us on hold. We could have been out there trying to find other housing.”

Patrick is now waiting for a refund from the apartments. 

After JXN Water initially shut off services to Blossom Apartments in July, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate twice ordered the water temporarily restored. But those extensions have run out, and since then, Patrick said the Jackson Fire Department has ceased delivering water to residents. Mississippi Home Corporation deemed the property unfit for housing in early August. In addition to Patrick, roughly a dozen families are still living at the complex without water as they struggle to find a new place. 

“ It’s just a hard thing that we’re going through right now because of this water shut off, and it’s not easy going out here trying to find a place. It’s not easy at all,” Patrick said. 

Since mid-August, Stewpot Community Services has been working to relocate Blossom residents. The nonprofit has placed a few residents in hotels, while others are waiting it out with family members. Jill Buckley, director of Stewpot, said that of the 27 households it has identified through management records and door-knocking, they’ve been able to rehouse eight families.

“One thing that has really slowed the process down is the HUD inspections for people who have housing vouchers, so waiting for the inspections to happen has been a little frustrating,” Buckley said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires rental property inspections to ensure their habitability and safety. Buckley said another issue residents are facing is the availability of apartments across Jackson. 

Eight of the 11-member Housing Task Force were in attendance at Monday’s meeting. Attorney Robert Ireland, who is representing another complex in its lawsuit with JXN Water over nonpayment, resigned from the task force to avoid a conflict of interest, said Nic Lott, Jackson’s communications director.

Task force vice-chair Jennifer Welch, who owns and manages properties in Jackson, Hattiesburg and Meridian, described one issue impacting JXN Water as “churn.” Limited liability companies rack up large water bills, terminate the account and then establish a new LLC to open a new account with JXN Water. 

“The property doesn’t even change ownership,” Welch said. “It’s just new LLCs being established really for this purpose of fraud, in my opinion.”

Welch said initiating a multifamily account with JXN Water should be as rigorous as applying for a loan. Landlords should be required to have a deed, be in good standing with the Secretary of State’s office and provide personal information and a working contact number or email for the manager of the LLC, she said.

“ There’s a lot of times when I sign up for a random account and they’re verifying that my phone number is legit,” Welch said. “Can we not do that if someone’s gonna be able to have a $150,000 water bill?”

Carla Dazet, a billing executive for JXN Water, also attended the meeting, though not as the company’s official designee to the task force. She said JXN Water has now implemented a process for shut-offs – whether it’s a residential, commercial or multi-family account, once the account is past-due 60 days, the property will lose water.  

“It won’t be a compounded annual delinquency. It’ll just be two months,” Dazet said. “That’s going forward. That’s already in place, so we don’t have to worry about the big bills building up.”

Welch also noted that as a property manager, she has found it increasingly difficult to purchase insurance for her properties due to the perception of high crime in the city.

“If we can prove that those areas are changing, I think that it can make it easier for people like myself to get insurance,” Welch said. 

Task force members also discussed city ordinances and code enforcement. Earnest Ward, president of the Association of South Jackson Neighborhoods, said he performs routine inspections on his properties, something that other landlords are lax to do. 

Units get damaged, cars rust away in yards, and some tenants have multiple pets that are destructive to the property which further decreases the value, he said. A solution he proposed is including city ordinances around rental inspections in the lease agreement. 

“I think it needs to be done regularly. They know what they expect,” Ward said. “Certain things they probably won’t do, but I think the landlord needs to take more of their responsibility on inspecting their own property.”

In 2022, the city made changes to its rental registration ordinance in an effort to track compliance and tackle blight. According to figures shared during the meeting, the goal was to inspect nearly 11,000 units, but the city fell short by inspecting only 3,200.

The city also relaunched the rental registry and inspection program, which requires  landlords to register properties and provides an avenue for tenants to record complaints. Victoria Love, the rental registry manager, said there are currently about 50 open cases, and most cases are closed within 30 days, though some have been open for up to 90 days. 

“Where you do have a slight issue is on some of your smaller landlords,” Love said. “A lot of times, they just don’t have additional capital to repair things completely.”

Welch said the information in the registry could be outdated and that the task force should consider recommending that the city conduct annual updates.

“Operators are changing, property managers are changing, things happen,” Welch said. “I think that the city needs to be putting effort into updating the information that’s registered.”

The next meeting of the Jackson Housing Task Force is scheduled for Monday, September 22 at 3:00 p.m. in the Warren A. Hood Building at 200 S. President St.