Baton Rouge – Nadia Andrews and her roommate sleep in their car for days to avoid a bug-infested apartment.
“School starts next week and I’m sleeping in my car. Embarrassing! This is my fourth grade and I never expected it to be a senior,” said Andrews.
She lives off campus in the Alight Apartment Complex on West McKinley Street with her two roommates, N’Mari Ward and Kennedy Whitfield. They say they went home for the holidays and were back with a flea infestation.
“We literally scrub our walls with bleach, baking soda, powder, and flea dust on our carpets. We shut off the air so it doesn’t get all over,” said Andrews.
They wear protective clothing every time they enter the apartment. They have been living in their car for the past 5 days.
“It’s really heartbreaking. It’s embarrassing. No one wants to tell anyone, ‘There are fleas in my apartment.’ But they won’t give us an answer, and it’s as if we were peaceful and kind.
Ward says she and her roommate have reached out to management several times, but reps have been unhelpful.
“We asked them, what are our options? They often said you could switch units for $250. , which actually spreads the problem to more apartments, which is annoying.
Whitfield says she just wants to be able to sleep in her own bed.
“We threw away our clothes and shoes all night. We probably threw away $600 to $700 worth of groceries,” Whitfield said.
If you search Alight Apartments online you will find multiple reviews about cockroach infestation and poor management. Some comments date back months.
These three students are now suffering mentally, emotionally and financially.
“We’ve got hundreds of dollars out of our pockets, hundreds of dollars that will probably never be seen again. We’re college students, so we can’t just pull $500 out of the air,” Andrews said. increase.
WBRZ contacted the complex administrator. They claim to have fixed the flea problem in the unit. Management believes tenants are the cause of the problem. Two of them are because he owns a dog. The girls say the dog didn’t have fleas before winter break and still doesn’t.
