Complaints Persist at Georgia King Village

Dozens of residents of Georgia King Village, located in the West Ward, met last week to discuss what they said were ongoing problems at the housing complex, including neglected maintenance and security staff who retaliate when residents complain about conditions there.

“I’ve walked the units. The things I’ve seen there are appalling,” Pamela Muhammad, president of the Georgia King Village resident council, said during last week’s meeting. “They’re asking people to live in filth, to live in dirty tub water, dirty sink water, plaster falling.”

The facility’s management, however, contends that it responds promptly to maintenance issues, and invited any residents with concerns to meet with management -- even in a forum covered by the press. Residents’ complaints about retaliation, meanwhile,  stem from misunderstandings about how the facility is run, managers also said. 


Georgia King Village consists of two large apartment towers and 150 town homes totalling 422 units. Although the sprawling facility is privately owned, residents receive federal housing assistance. Georgia King Village is operated according to federal US Housing and Urban Development guidelines.  

Muhammad and other speakers last week recited a litany of maintenance problems at Georgia King, including one elderly woman who said she had been waiting 15 years for renovations to her bathroom to make it handicapped-accessible. Muhammad spoke of another unit where the floor near the toilet was about to give way.

Maryann Bey, who while working as an aide to former Councilwoman Bessie Walker had previously dealt with complaints at Georgia King, said problems there “had been going on for years.”

“They’re asking you to live under certain conditions they themselves would not live under,” Bey said. 

Ron Rice, the current West Ward councilman, also said that complaints about the facility date back a number of years, even as the management of Georgia King has repeatedly changed. He also said that while conditions seemed to have improved somewhat, more apparently needs to be done if a substantial number of residents are still reporting problems.

“We’ve had two or three or four or five management companies and two or three or four or five security companies here, but we have to keep trying till we get there,” Rice said.

Rice advised residents to contact a regional HUD official, Bill Good, and request an inquiry into reported issues at Georgia King. Rice’s staff also recorded individual complaints from residents, while Rice himself promised to seek out attorneys willing to represent residents on a pro bono basis if necessary.

“If the residents want to go forward with a class-action lawsuit, I would be the first one to sign it,” Rice said.

Muhammad and others said, however, that residents are afraid to speak out and would likely be unwilling to take part in legal action. Several who spoke last week said residents who have fallen out of favor with management have been ordered to leave Georgia King immediately.

But Yolanda Daniels, property supervisor at Georgia King, and Kent Young, owner of New Jersey Properties, which manages the site, said that what might appear to be retaliation to some residents is actually the management’s attempt to deal as fairly as possible with residents who break the rules.

Tenants cannot be evicted from Georgia King without a court hearing and an order from an Essex County constable. At the same time, however, HUD requirements stipulate that anyone convicted of a drug or weapons offense cannot be allowed to remain at Georgia King. When a resident is suspected of such an offense, Daniels said, management gives them a choice: leave voluntarily or face a legal proceeding that could result in the resident being barred permanently from subsidized housing.

“We do an informal conference first when there’s a criminal complaint. We don’t want to taint anyone’s rental history,” Daniels said.

“I can go on record with this, that the only people I have evicted have been for drugs or guns or for nonpayment of rent,” said Young, whose company has run Georgia King for the last year and a half. 

Regarding maintenance, Young said he has heard the complaints directly from Muhammad, but she has declined to identify who specifically is having problems when Young has asked. Young, who said the vast majority of residents appear to be satisfied with their Georgia King homes, also said the facility routinely files a record of maintenance work orders completed with the city.

Young also said Daniels would gladly meet with any residents experiencing problems, and also said management would welcome an invitation to attend resident council meetings in order to address issues as they arise.

“I’m sitting here ready to work this out. That’s all I want out of this,” Young said.