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A Dallas County court approved a new temporary restraining order against the owners of Hillcrest Apartments on Friday afternoon after the city of Mesquite demanded the complex remedy the widespread heat outages that have plagued residents for years.
The judge’s ruling expands the conditions of a previous temporary restraining order, which the city filed late last month after inspectors documented widespread heat outages at Hillcrest during a winter storm.
The most recent order compels the landlords to “provide accommodations to residents which do not place them in immediate jeopardy.”
The judge’s newer ruling Friday will require the landlord to provide alternative accommodations for tenants whose units don’t have heat or hot water and for tenants whose units have sewage blockages or are within 200 feet of open sewage.
The landlord has to provide the alternative lodging for residents within three hours of being notified about the code violations. The order will expire April 1, when the case’s next hearing takes place.
An attorney representing the complex’s owners did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
After the city filed a temporary restraining order late last month, CC Hillcrest LLC booked hotel rooms for tenants who didn’t have heat. But some residents told The Dallas Morning News their reservations were canceled or the hotel didn’t have any available rooms, despite tenants having a confirmed reservation.
Under the new order, the judge could also fine Hillcrest owners for failing to comply with code and make necessary repairs, Mesquite City Attorney David Paschall said.
The court will assign financial penalties when the initial lawsuit is resolved, city staff said.
Mesquite City Manager Cliff Keheley said in a prepared statement Friday that the city is “pleased” with the outcome of the hearing, which “provides greater relief for residents of Hillcrest Apartments.”
But Hillcrest tenants said they aren’t optimistic they’ll see immediate change. Brittany Jones, a Hillcrest tenant and de facto activist for residents, said Friday that while the ruling may look “good on paper,” tenants are left to deal with the consequences.
“Some people call me crying because they can’t call [the city] because no one answers the phone or responds to an email,” Jones said. “So they call me crying. They’re scared. What am I supposed to do?”
Jones is staying with a friend for several days because she said a roach infestation in her apartment has gotten worse, and she still lacks heat and hot water.
“I still got to go to people’s houses to take a shower,” she said. “This is not how you’re supposed to live.”
She said that management has not addressed any of the code violations in her home since the city first filed its lawsuit a month ago. Jones criticized the lawsuit, saying it’s just a performance.
“Have you seen my apartment change once? No. They don’t care. They have not came to fix anything — and the city knows it,” she said.
Keheley said city inspectors documented more than 150 units without heat from Feb. 23-24, when temperatures were below freezing.
“We found that the situation with the heating system was so severe, [management was] unable to get it back up and running,” he said. “The complex didn’t have a reaction plan for people who were going to be in apartments with no heat when it was dropping below freezing.”
In response to Hillcrest’s inaction, the city opened a warming station at a recreation center for residents, but none of them used it. Keheley said the reason could be that tenants are used to solving problems on their own or living with them.
“People have found ways to take care of themselves, either staying with relatives or utilizing space heaters, which is kind of one of those disappointing things — that people are ready for this type of situation,” Keheley said.
Jones and other residents also told The News that the federal government will no longer issue Section 8 housing vouchers for rental assistance at Hillcrest, forcing them to find other places to live.
“We’re struggling,” Jones said, echoing the desperation many Hillcrest residents say they feel. “We still got to find somewhere to stay.”
Keheley said he is aware residents in various housing programs are looking for alternatives. Many have had little luck because of the low supply of available and qualifying apartment units in Mesquite and across Dallas-Fort Worth.
According to a 2020 survey by a Dallas nonprofit, The Inclusive Communities Project, only two of 20 Mesquite apartment complexes accept Section 8 vouchers. In 26 of the 39 North Texas cities surveyed in 2020, none of the surveyed properties accepted Section 8 vouchers.