JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley sued the St. Louis Housing Authority and the company that manages the Clinton-Peabody Housing Complex on Wednesday, accusing the two entities of failing to fix mold, infestations and structural issues at the complex.
The lawsuit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, accuses the housing authority and the property manager, McCormack Baron Management Inc., of maintaining a public nuisance, engaging in a civil conspiracy and violating the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act by fraudulently marketing the units as habitable.
At Clinton-Peabody south of downtown, feces, urine and carcasses are leaving a mess as exterminators set hundreds of traps.
Hawley’s office asked a circuit judge to issue an injunction requiring unit repairs and restitution of rent payments to residents living in uninhabitable units.
The lawsuit also asks the judge to order punitive damages, civil penalties and reimbursement of money paid to McCormack Baron, and asks that the defendants cover the cost of the attorney general’s involvement, which started in April.
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At the time, Cheryl Lovell, the director of the housing authority, said housing managers had made progress in fixing conditions at the complex, where about 1,000 low-income residents live across 31 buildings. The complex, south of downtown St. Louis, was built in 1942.
She said in April that city health department officials had found evidence of mice in 42 units, down from 165 units in December. Lovell said the health department completed another inspection last week, but that she did not have the results.
“We have spent a lot of time and energy trying to resolve these issues at Clinton-Peabody, and we have worked tirelessly to do it,” Lovell said, acknowledging the pests and rodents were not totally eradicated.
Lovell said she had not read Hawley’s lawsuit, but thought it was “not particularly productive” to sue the housing authority seeing as the vast majority of its resources are derived from federal taxpayer funds.
“It seems it might have been more in everybody’s best interests to try to understand what we are doing and how we are trying to resolve the problems before filing a lawsuit,” she said. “But then again, I can’t tell you what’s in the attorney general’s mind.”
Hawley, a Republican, said in a statement that the conditions at Clinton-Peabody were “intolerable.”
“Missouri law gives tenants the right to live in a safe and properly maintained home, and I am committed to ensuring that this vital right is vindicated,” said Hawley, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
In response to Lovell’s concerns, Mary Compton, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement that the office is aware of the authority’s efforts to correct the problems, and the state’s top law enforcement office isn’t satisfied.
“This is another example of the Housing Authority making excuses instead of offering solutions,” Compton said. “The residents of Clinton-Peabody deserve action, not talk.”
She added: “The office is concerned that thus far the Housing Authority has not been responsive to the demands it has faced. We also sued McCormack Baron which has ample resources to pay a monetary award.”
The lawsuit details the living conditions of five renters. The first person, known in court documents as “Consumer #1,” said she and her three children live in a unit infested with cockroaches and plagued by mold. Attached to the lawsuit are several pictures, dated Wednesday, of the conditions.
“Consumer #2,” who lives with two minor children, described a persistent mice infestation. Several photos dated Monday show mice feces.
A third consumer, also living with children, detailed black mold growth and mice infestations. The doctor for the third consumer’s infant twins told the attorney general’s office that “they should not be staying in that type of toxic environment.”
The lawsuit details similar problems with two other residents, but says “systematic” problems plague the complex.
In April, representatives with McCormack Baron said they had shaken up management at the complex and were working to address the mice infestation.
Officials in recent months have scrutinized conditions at the complex after a spat between city health officials and the housing authority and protests drew attention to the problems. In addition to Hawley’s investigation, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., visited the complex in April.
In a March 19 letter to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, she said the department should “act swiftly” to develop a long-term solution for the mice infestation.
Last month, federal authorities said they broke up an alleged drug-trafficking ring at the complex, indicting 15 people.