Southern Towers tenants displaced by flooding

Several tenants at Southern Towers have been displaced by a major flood caused by leaking air conditioning units.

The flood started in an apartment on the eighth floor of the Sherwood building on Saturday, Oct. 14, resulting in significant damage to about 14 units on the first through the eighth floors. The apartments had one to two inches of standing water, resulting in warped flooring, electricity outages, and damaged walls.

“Tenants had made multiple attempts to reach landlord CIM Group’s maintenance staff and emergency line over the course of the day, but were met with either silence, lack of information, and/or dismissal,” reports African Communities Together (ACT), an advocacy group that has been working for years to get CIM to improve conditions at Southern Towers.

Tenants gathered in the lobby of the building, worried about where they would spend the night. One tenant told ACT: “We can’t sleep in this. It’s not safe and the smell is unbearable.”

Among those affected were tenants with pre-existing health issues, one who is bedridden, and families with young children. 

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Tenants have been reporting problems with their AC units since the start of the summer. That has led to mold, which is likely to be exacerbated by the flood.

After touring Southern Towers with other City of Alexandria officials in September, City Council member Alyia Gaskins wrote in a letter to CIM managers that after visiting one unit with mold, her child began coughing so much that they had to leave.

On the tour, the officials saw firsthand the impact of deferred maintenance and heard tenants’ concerns about rodent and insect infestations, CIM’s failure to respond to complaints, inconsistent utility billing, and other problems.

When we asked CIM to respond to the flooding issue, Bethany Chang, a principal with the CIM Group, said: “As any homeowner or renter knows, sometimes maintenance issues happen like pipes bursting, and it is always incredibly inconvenient and unpleasant when it happens.”

“Our team at Southern Towers is working diligently to ensure that all impacted residents are provided with timely repairs and, if needed, temporary housing,” Chang said. “When this leak occurred, our team was in touch with the residents that day and began mitigation and repairs immediately. They have not ceased working since, and they will continue to work until the job is complete.”

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According to ACT, after the flooding began at 11 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, tenants attempted to contact emergency staff but didn’t get a response and staff didn’t show up to inspect the units. CIM didn’t send an official communication until Monday morning and didn’t begin handing out keys to other units until Monday evening. A couple of tenants didn’t receive keys until Tuesday morning; one household spent the night in their car.

CIM told the tenants it will take five or six weeks to fix the AC units. When tenants asked about their damaged belongings, CIM encouraged them to file a claim with their rental insurance company and agreed to give them credit for the deductible.

This is not the first flooding incident at Southern Towers but is the most severe. When Alexandria officials visited the complex last month, they saw water pouring through the elevator shafts.

“This situation is entirely unacceptable, inhumane, and yet another example of how the CIM Group does not care about the best interests of these tenants and is not truly committed to providing them with safe and habitable conditions,” said Sosseh Prom, housing justice director at ACT. 

“Why was no one from management immediately on the property as soon as they heard about the severe flooding? Why were previous complaints from tenants about the ACs ignored or improperly resolved?” she said. “These residents deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion.”