It's officially summer in Oklahoma, which means local news reporters are hurrying to file their seasonal round of "renters stuck living in sweltering summer squalor thanks to shitty landlords" news stories.
News 9's Barry Mangold hopped on the beat last week with this report about some down-on-their-luck folks stuck living in a south OKC apartment complex.
It's owned by a California company that allegedly won't repair broken AC units, fix plumbing problems or provide other amenities people should expect to have in the year 2022, like heat in the winter:
Multiple residents of Creekside Apartments, a complex in South Oklahoma City, say their utilities have broken down repeatedly, including an ongoing outage of the central air system.
“One of them has been off at all times,” said Rebecca Stevenson, a resident since 2020. “Either gas, electric, water, A-C, heat. I haven't had heat in the Winter. I haven't had A-C in the Summer. Most of the time I've lived here, I haven't had plumbing or water.”
“Sometimes I'll take a cold shower and try to cool off and hope for the best,” said resident Michael Milligan.
Five other residents, who declined an interview for this story, told News 9 their units have been without air conditioning for months.
In these types of stories, out-of-state property owners rarely if ever talk to the media. What's the point? It's not like they're going to send "In Your Corner" out to sunny California for a sneak attack interview.
For some reason, though, Jose Belman, CEO of Capital Homes Investments, did. He blamed vindictive renters who don't like to be bothered about rent.