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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced a settlement reached with South Bend apartment complex during a Wednesday afternoon Facebook livestream.
Cedar Glen Apartments didn’t have heat or hot water for its tenants for weeks to months over a two-year period.
Rokita said the settlement was a little over $10,000 which is less than what his office usually reaches. He said the main reason for that is that the landlords cooperated with them.
“That is rare to find in our work. We usually find landlords on the other end of that spectrum, not cooperating, trying to hide under their nonprofit status and create not only problems for tenants, not only problems for taxpayers, but society as a whole,” Rokita said.
Cedar Glen Apartments did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Porter Township Trustee Jason Critchlow joined the livestream where he said he was surprised to hear from the attorney general’s office at first.
“We didn’t know if we were going to be successful for residents here. We didn’t know if we were going to fail. We just knew what was right and what was wrong here and what was happening here was wrong,” Critchlow said. “Their support really meant everything to us.”
He added that they will be monitoring the situation, especially this winter.
“We know that this winter is going to be the true test,” Critchlow said. “We’re going to be keeping an eye on things here at Cedar Glen and basically all over the city of South Bend as well to make sure that these issues aren’t happening anymore.”
He added that they need more support and better laws.
“We need better laws that are going to provide us with more power and more authority to hold these places accountable and make sure that residents are protected,” Critchlow said.
Chase Haller, the head of the homeowners protection unit with the attorney general’s office, also joined the livestream during which he said Hoosiers are facing “unprecedented” housing challenges.
“Hoosiers deserve government that cares for their well being, and that starts with a stable place to call home that is clean, safe and livable,” Haller said. “The courage of Cedar Glen residents demanding change cannot be understated.”
Rokita thanked South Bend Democratic lawmakers Rep. Maureen Bauer and Sen. David Niezgodski for their concerns and warning him of the issue.
“Even though we live in turbulent political times, not everything has to be political. And this is one of many examples of bipartisan leadership,” Rokita said.
He added that legislators need to take action on the state nonprofit laws so his office can be more involved in situations similar to what happened at Cedar Glen Apartments.
“Our laws are so old and antiquated, and they usually get hung up in the Senate,” Rokita said.
However, Rokita’s Democratic challenger in the upcoming election Destiny Wells criticized the Indiana General Assembly for not doing more to protect Hoosier tenants.
“Indiana renters are disproportionately impacted by some of the nation’s most burdensome landlord-tenant laws,” Wells said in a press release. “As it stands currently, Hoosier renters are at the mercy of their landlord without the protection of rent escrow laws that exist in 45 other states.”
Wells also claimed Rokita hasn’t done anything to advocate for “meaningful landlord-tenant reforms, instead relying on special interests to quash legislation.”
“Is Todd Rokita going to continue lobbying for special interests or Hoosiers?” Wells said in a press release. “As an attorney in private practice, I took on predatory landlords and as Attorney General, I will continue that fight to give Hoosiers accountability.”
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