LaQuita Glasper said living at Blossom Apartments the last few weeks has felt like being in jail. 

On July 23, JXN Water disconnected service to the complex in south Jackson, leaving about 20 families without access to running water. Now, the residents have orders to vacate.

Hundreds more Jacksonians could be forced from their homes if the private water utility continues a crackdown that has already led residents in two apartment complexes to flee. 

“We’re not gonna be able to move and pick up in five days,” Glasper said Saturday as officials scrambled to temporarily restore water and deal with the fallout. “We need more time.”

The utility has remained mum about the specific properties where it plans to discontinue service next, though concerned residents are encouraged to call JXN Water 601-500-5200 to get a status update on their property.

Glasper, 44, has lived at Blossom with her mother for four years. She said she doesn’t invite visitors because of safety concerns.

She said she has her eyes set on another complex, The Park at St. Andrews. But that apartment is also behind on its water bill, according to JXN Water.

The utility previously released a list of 15 complexes that had delinquent water bills of more than $100,000, plus 141 total accounts across the city are considered past due. Some of the properties have signed on to a payment plan. The utility said it has declined to name the complexes that have refused and could be at risk of shutoffs, “to avoid triggering confusion or panic among tenants.”

But advocates and caseworkers for low-income and homeless Jacksonians are bracing.

“This is in some ways starting to feel like a practice run,” said Jill Buckley, director of Stewpot Community Services, which is using a federal emergency housing grant to help Blossom residents relocate. 

Mayor John Horhn secured a federal judge’s order last Friday temporarily restoring water to Blossom until Wednesday. Because the complex is a low-income housing development, oversight agency Mississippi Home Corporation stepped in, labeling the property unsafe and forcing residents to leave. 

 ”It really been like a horror movie. It kind of reminds me of Hurricane Katrina. People are running here and there trying to get water,” said Chante Robinson-Baxter, another Blossom tenant. She receives disability payments and has lived at the complex for 13 years.

Mississippi Home Corporation Director Scott Spivey, who has headed the agency for a decade, said it was the first time in his tenure it exercised this authority.

“I would love to say that there’s never going to be a next time but there’s going to be a next time,” Spivey said Tuesday.

Many of the low-income residents of these apartments have paid their water bills, combined with their monthly rent. The utility shut off water to residents at Blossom, claiming its owner owes $422,000, on July 23, followed by another south Jackson complex, Chapel Ridge, on Aug. 1. 

“I’ve just been pleading my case with JXN Water, ‘Please don’t displace these residents,’ because they’re doing what they’re supposed to do,” said Allison Cox, director of the Jackson Housing Authority, which administers federal housing vouchers to residents in Jackson, including one who lived at Blossom. 

JXN Water’s policy is to post signs notifying residents of impending shutoffs. But the utility’s spokesperson, Aisha Carson, said Blossom’s property manager removed the notices, “leading to confusion and misinformation among residents.”

Cox and JXN Water have been in constant contact, so she knows how much of a moving target the shutoffs have become. One day, she gets word that a complex might lose service. The next, the owner has signed a repayment agreement. 

“It’s changing all the time,” Cox said.

Tenants and advocates met Tuesday evening at Stewpot to discuss their options. If anything, the Blossom situation has demonstrated how community partners can mobilize to address shutoffs in the future. 

Tonia Cowart, a local real estate agent and Stewpot’s housing navigator, said she uses all available resources – secretary of state’s office filings, county tax records, news reports and her own eyes – to vet units before placing her clients there. 

“My best work is done with boots on the ground, and I get up and go see, and I do this on a daily basis,” Cowart said.

Before JXN Water released the names of the 15 delinquent apartment complexes, though, she wouldn’t have known not to refer people there. 

Mississippi Today reached out to the 15 complexes on the list of highest delinquent accounts. The only response came from The Park at St. Andrews, with manager Reuven Oded saying the complex has been dealing with the Jackson water “saga” for years and tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issue.

“We are hopeful that now that the Federal Receiver is in place we will have all billing and usage matters resolved in the very near future,” Oded said in an email.

Blossom Apartments owner Tony Little’s troubles with JXN Water, including hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of charges he says are impossible, began more than a year ago. Little said he doesn’t have enough money to cover the bill.

“The bill is simply not correct, but today we’re talking about displaced tenants … It’s the actual people who are on the ground that we have to protect,” Little said. “This is no longer just about who’s right and who’s wrong.”

Carson said that while she cannot speak on individual accounts, JXN Water is now implementing two systems for transparency. 

Starting in September, the utility will be publishing a list of the 15 complexes with the largest outstanding balances, and it is also allowing call center staff to respond to requests for information on accounts if the resident can provide proof that they live in a particular complex. 

“We’re making this decision because tenants have to know ahead of time whether or not their apartment complex owner is behind on their water bill,” Carson said. “We want to be able to point them towards the source of truth about it.”

Jackson reporter Molly Minta and editor Anna Wolfe contributed to this report.