Southmont Apartments: Worst in Fayetteville Says the City

FAYETTEVILLE, AR -- - The city said it's one of the worst apartments in town. The Southmont apartments in South Fayetteville, right off MLK Jr Blvd. have had 4 city ordinance violations in just the last year. 

"I can deal with my house flooding, but my kid getting shot..that's where I draw the line," said Kimberly Winner Southmont resident. 

Fayetteville police said they've been called to Southmont apartments 7 times, in the past month, for calls of shots fired. 

When you're walking around the Southmont apartment complex, you can expect to find everything from broken windows, black mold and even bullet holes in some buildings.

A family owned the complex for 40 years, then sold it last year. Since then, there have been three different owners. 

Mark Whitaker, Fayetteville Building Safety Director explained, "Whoever owns it has an obligation to keep it maintained and serviceable. Of course when they're constantly changing, who is the maintenance person? Who's the  up at bat this week? We don't know?"

"There isn't a manager for months, and then there's a new management company..and that changes every few months. And you don't know who you're paying rent to, or if you're paying rent," said Winner. 

We tried to speak with management on site. But during business hours, the doors were locked and no one was inside. 

Whitaker said there's a legal process every time they serve nuisance letters, and by the time they serve them the owners have changed. 

"It's not the city's property. As much as I would love to go out there and make someone repair or fix these things.. I don't have the authority by city ordinance to do that," said Whitaker.

Whitaker said bulldozing the Southmont hasn't been an option since it is peoples' home."But when people do live there, and this is their home it makes it a little bit harder to say okay we're going to bring an excavator out here and knock it down.

Winner has lived at the apartment for a year and a half. After dealing with raw sewage and shootings, they're moving out. "You never know what's going to happen. Or when a pipe is going to break, or when a toilet is going to flood from upstairs, and it's going to fall through the roof,,you just don't know," explained Winner. 

After visiting the complex this past month, Whitaker said he's taking even harsher actions to fix the complex by putting together an extensive report. "We're going to get this together, and give it to the prosecution's office."

KNWA also tried to determine whether the Southmont apartments were subsidized by the federal government.It appears the Department of Housing and Urban Development does help residents.But without the apartment owners providing comment... We can't determine where or how that federal money is spent.