A Cry for Help – Living at Laurelwood

INDIANAPOLIS — Assisted living homes are meant for families in need. The homes are built on the idea that low-income families can live comfortably while working towards their next step in life.

For one family on the south side of Indianapolis, their home isn’t comfortable – they say it’s become a nightmare.

This is the story of an apartment company accused of negligence, and the family desperate for someone to hear what they say is happening on the south side.

Kieffer and Allin Gonzalez have eight children, the youngest being 11-months-old. Around 3 o’clock Saturday morning, July 15th, a small pipe connected to their upstairs toilet burst, flooding their unit at the Laurelwood Apartments, located just minutes away from the University of Indianapolis.

By the time Kieffer and Allin woke up and rushed into their children’s rooms, the kids were surrounded by water.

The water softened the ceiling downstairs, which caused it to collapse down to the living room floor. The floors and walls became soft, light fixtures filled with water, and water settled around ankle level.

The Gonzalez family rushed out of the apartment. Since that day, each member of the family has slept in a different place. Sometimes in cars, at a friend’s house, or with family. While trying to clean-up the damage caused by the water, the family began trying to contact the apartment office, and their corporate owners, for help.

Help they say they have not found.

WIBC News made the trip out to the Laurelwood Apartments to do a walk through and see the damage in-person.

“So, this is the bathroom where it happened,” says Kieffer Gonzalez. He’s pointing down towards the back of the upstairs toilet to the pipe that burst, “this little pipe right here is the piece I was talking about. It was messed up for about a month-and-a-half, and I’ve told them (management) this. I actually didn’t have a working bathroom because I turned off the water because it was leaking and flooding my bathroom.”

The Gonzalez family, which moved into Laurelwood in February of 2022, believes the pipe was patched by one of several rotating maintenance workers they say may come check on the unit, but might never return to actually complete the work.

Kieffer says he called the apartment office around 6 a.m. on the day the pipe burst, only to be told “sorry” and that there was no follow-up emergency plan of action. He asked, “what about corporate? What is their plan? What’s the next step?”

The office apparently told Kieffer that they could not give him corporate’s number, and that he would have to “Google it” to contact them. The next step in the process was not laid out for the Gonzalez family, says Kieffer.

That is the core of Kieffer’s issue – not necessarily with the on-site staff, but with the corporate owners of Laurelwood: Hayes Gibson Property Services.

WIBC News attempted to contact Hayes Gibson and Laurelwood for this story. There was no response from Hayes Gibson, and when WIBC News attempted to call Laurelwood on several occasions, the phones were not working.

Hayes Gibson took control of Laurelwood in 2022. The previous owners, Indianapolis Housing Agency (IHA), sold many of their properties in 2022.

Kieffer says since Hayes Gibson took over, Laurelwood cannot keep consistent maintenance help, units take weeks or months to repair, and several other tenants have had to fix their units themselves.

“The last (maintenance) guy would come make a list of what he needed and just never return,” says Kieffer Gonzalez, “there was a big puddle of sitting water (after the pipe burst), and the guy said, ‘I didn’t even see this puddle of water here because I didn’t come and check.’ So, he only came, looked in the bathroom, and went back downstairs. Mind you, when IHA was managing the property, they had a maintenance number. They had a line, a hotline, 24-hours we could call, and they answered, they made an appointment, and they would come out whenever they could. Which was actually a better system. My frustration comes from them (Hayes Gibson) not reaching out and seeing if we are okay. Not even me, to see if my children are okay.”

Kieffer says since the unit flooded, the kids were split up and stayed the night at several different places. He says the kids had to go because he was concerned about the moisture build-up, which he feared could cause problems for his children who have breathing problems. Kieffer has been to work off and on, trying to clean the apartment and trying to contact corporate at the same time.

It’s costing the family money, and rent is still due, says Gonzalez. The family does not have renter’s insurance. Allin is a stay-at-home mother, and Kieffer works a full-time job. They say after budgeting what money they have, they usually have about 30-dollars left, not enough to afford an additional bill like renter’s insurance, says the family.

The accusations of negligence made by the Gonzalez family are similar in tone to many different families across the state. In some cases, those complaints have become investigations, and lawsuits have been filed by the state’s attorney general’s office.

Current Attorney General Todd Rokita tells WIBC’s Hammer & Nigel apartment companies accused of negligence cannot keep getting away with alleged mistreatment of tenants, “I don’t know what these guys think. That they can just come pee on the people of Indiana or what. It’s just disgusting how they leave these tenants, who have paid good rent. It’s just like they want to take the money out of Indiana and not put any effort into the upkeep of the property or care of their tenants. So, we have sued them (Willow Brook Apartments in Indianapolis) under Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Practices Act.”

Hayes Gibson and Laurelwood are not currently under any sort of investigation, and everything stated above is from the perspective of the Gonzalez family. However, Laurelwood is an assisted living space partially funded through Indiana government subsidies. That’s what Rokita takes issue with, when it comes to other apartment companies throughout the state.

Laurelwood offered a temporary unit to the Gonzalez family, but it is still not ready, and the family says they have heard nothing as of this past weekend.

“My anger is with…there was no sense of urgency when my children were in this house when this happened,” says Gonzalez, “I don’t want them to come buy me a mansion, I just want to be acknowledged. I have not been acknowledged since anything has happened. Somebody’s car breaks down, they get a flat tire, they (Laurelwood) instantly come and put a sticker on it and guess what, it gets towed the next day if you don’t move it. Act that fast if we’re calling you, telling you we have a problem. If your tenants are asking you for something, we’re not looking for a handout – we’re looking for a safe place to live.”

At the time of this writing, the Gonzalez family is still staying with friends and family. It’s been nearly a week-and-a-half since their apartment was flooded.

If you would like to donate to the Gonzalez family, you have the option to do so here.