Tenants without H20; landlord won't pay

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Patricia Hammond turned on the kitchen faucet Thursday, but nothing came out.

Her family is among three in a west side apartment building living without water since Monday after the city shut it off. Although the tenants say they paid their rent, their landlords had fallen $702 behind in their water bill, city officials say.

"You can't flush your toilet, you can't do your dishes. What are you to do?" asked Hammond, who lives at 811 Third St. NW with her husband and their dog.

"He's got water," she said of her landlord. "He can flush his toilet. He can take a shower. What about us? We pay him rent."

One mom had started her 2-year-old son on potty training.

"He's back in diapers now because I was potty training him, and there's no way for him to flush the toilet," Chelsea Hanson said.

Another mom is taking her three young children to a neighbor's house so they can clean up.

"We take a shower, give the kids a shower there, and then just come right back," Damaris Medina said.

They flush their toilets with buckets of water from their neighbors. Sometimes, they walk to the nearby library to use the bathroom.

City officials say this has happened more often this summer after several years of declines. There were nearly 300 water shutoffs in July, up 12 percent compared to July 2008. In August, there were 261 shutoffs, an increase of 6 percent.

Through August 2009, the city has shut off water to 1,899 customers -- a slight increase overall compared to the same period last year.

"Times are difficult," Water Department Manager JoEllen Thompson said. "We have noticed an increase in late payments and requests from people to make payment arrangements."

At the home on Third Street, the landlords -- identifed in city records as Todd and Christina Bialas -- have not paid a water bill since June, Thompson said.

They have owned the Grand Rapids apartment house since 2006 -- at least the seventh owners since 2000, according to housing inspection reports. They live in Hudsonville and have owned a second-hand shop, records show.

The home has a long history of housing code violations, dating back at least nine years.

24 Hour News 8 tried to contact the landlords, who did not return calls.

Tenants say they pay the rent -- totaling $1,250 a month between the three apartments. They say it includes water. City officials say the home has one water meter, in the landlords' names.

"The difficulty is, it's a four-unit building," Thompson said. "If there was a single tenant, we have procedures to allow tenants to put the water in their name. But with only one meter and four (apartments), it makes it difficult."

The city has given the landlord until Sunday to fix the problem. Thompson, the water manager, said she was unaware of the problem until she got a call from 24 Hour News 8.

She said the city will try to work with the tenants to turn on the water again.