Residents say sewage backups ongoing at Atlanta apartment complex

ATLANTA - Tenants of a southwest Atlanta apartment complex are fired up. They say they are fed up dealing with sewage backing up into their units.

"My son literally cries when he sees that we are coming back here," said Jessica Hernandez.

Hernandez says this has been an ongoing problem for about a week. She lives in the Aspen Courts Apartments on Stanton Road.

"It smells absolutely horrible," Hernandez said. "It's like marinating in feces, the carpet, the walls, the flooring is lifting because it has just been soaking in water."

FOX 5 reached out to Meridian Management Group, the company that operates the complex.

They sent a statement that reads:

"As soon as we were notified of the issue, we immediately mobilized our maintenance staff and called Creative Plumbing to diagnose and assess the issue. Licensed plumbers have been on-site all day working to identify the root cause of the backup. The team on-site was able to assess that the sewage pipes had completely collapsed. Our plumbers are still on site and have been working to resolve this problem, and we expect to have this problem resolved asap. We've also contracted with a local professional cleaning company, at no cost to our tenants, to clean the apartments continuously. They have already cleaned each affected unit twice today, and we have another cleaning lined up after the final repair is completed. We apologize to any residents that have experienced discomfort or inconvenience due to this unforeseen issue. We treat all maintenance requests and emergency repairs seriously and promptly."

Neighbors say the fix has taken too long.

"I'm scared to use my bathroom or the toilet because I don't know if it's going to start flooding in my house," said Alaizjah Lawrence.

Hernandez says they have been getting the run around, but she just wants everything fixed and cleaned up.

For now, she is looking at staying at a shelter.

"I can't bathe my children, I have a 3-month-old and a 5-year-old just to be able to get them to school clean I had to go to someone else's house and bathe them there," Hernandez said. "I can't cook food; I can't wash my dishes because I don't know if the water that's coming out of my sink is going to be septic water as well."

The tenants say they asked for alternative housing, but they said the apartment complex has not provided that. We asked the management company about that but were told they do not have that answer.