John Bratton and Candice Walker have run out of time and money.
More than two weeks since the Aspen Place Apartments were condemned by the city of Gardner and residents were given 48 hours to vacate, Bratton and Walker are still looking for a permanent place to live.
“We don’t know what we are going to do,” Walker said.
The pair of roommates are two of 25 Aspen Place residents who were given week-long hotel vouchers through Olathe-based nonprofit Mission Southside.
Their vouchers ran out on Thursday, May 15, and Bratton and Walker have been paying out of pocket for a room at the Sleep Inn hotel in Olathe, 20662 W 151st St., ever since.
“They’ve (Sleep Inn) been amazing,” Walker said. “They have gone out of their way for us.”
Still, their future remains uncertain.
Some Aspen Place units condemned before May 6
Walker said they were not able to stay with other displaced Aspen Place residents at the Salvation Army’s temporary shelter in Olathe because of their two emotional support dogs, a pitbull named Troubles and a Staffordshire Bulldog named Bella.
The cost to board them across the street from the Salvation Army shelter cost $90 a day, which Walker and Bratton couldn’t afford, so they ended up at the Sleep Inn.
Bratton and Walker have been roommates the past year and said their apartment at Aspen Place was one of six units that were condemned in April because of poor water pressure and related sewer issues.
That was a month before the rest of the complex was condemned by the city on May 6, on the recommendation from Fire District #1 officials after a fire truck responding to a 911 call at the complex sank into a road.
“But they didn’t give us a move out date (in April),” Walker said. “We continued to live there.”
City spokesperson Daneeka Marshall-Oquendo confirmed six Aspen Place units were condemned in April because they had little to no water pressure, brown-colored water and a gas odor.
“It has been really heart-wrenching”
Bratton and Walker said that after their apartment was condemned in April the property manager allowed them to use neighboring vacant apartments to shower, but they say they were not prepared for the entire neighborhood to be condemned a month later.
“The mayor needs to explain where we are supposed to go,” Walker said. “It has been really heart-wrenching. I know people still sleeping in their cars with their kids. The city tells us there is nothing they can do.”
Marshall-Owuendo, the city spokesperson, said the city is “continuing to monitor the situation” but that officials were not able to get a full census of Aspen Place residents because it was private information controlled by the property owner, Lenexa-based KDR Realty.
Bratton and Walker have been looking for a new apartment in Olathe, Gardner and Spring Hill “with no luck.” Walker is legally blind and currently living on disability, complicating their search.
“There is nothing until June or July, sometimes December,” Walker said. “We also can’t afford $1,895 a month,” a reference to one quoted rental price for a unit they toured.
What about security deposit reimbursements?
The pair say they did receive a pro-rated rent check reimbursement for May that was $200 less than their regular monthly rent payment, but Bratton said they have yet to see their security deposit returned by KDR Realty.
Previously, a lawyer representing KDR, Jeff Zimmerman with Shawnee-based law firm Zimmerman & Doering, told the Post the company was reimbursing residents for their deposits and May rent.
Bratton and Walker said they still want answers from the city of Gardner, Johnson County and KDR.
“We deserve answers,” Walker said. “The city needs to step up to the plate, KDR too. Why didn’t they meet with us all (before). Accountability needs to be placed.”
Bratton said he would also have appreciated it if the city had had a better contingency plan for the residents of Aspen Place after the condemnation.
“No one knew what was going on,” Bratton said.
Gardner nonprofit supporting dozens of families financially
Hope Market, a Gardner-based food pantry and nonprofit, has been leading local efforts to help displaced Aspen Place residents.
Hope Market founder Melissa Prins said they went from helping 63 Aspen Place families before the condemnation to helping 107 families after all its estimated 700 residents — including dozens of school-aged children — were displaced.
Hope Market raised more than $204,000 through a fundraiser in the days after the condemnation and that money went into a money market account, Prins said.
When residents find a new place to live, Hope Market writes a check from that account directly to residents’ new apartment or landlord meant to cover the first month’s rent, a security deposit and utility hook-ups.
“Things they didn’t anticipate they would need money for,” Prins said.
So far, 98 families from Aspen Place have received housing assistance from Hope Market, costing a total of $167,300, more than three-quarters of the money raised.
“It has definitely been worthwhile to help people,” Prins said.
Despite the community’s effort so far, Prins said Hope Market still needs more donations for money and food.
“We have never been this low,” Prins said, of the current supplies in her pantry, items like canned goods, boxed breakfast items like Pop Tarts, granola, oatmeal, cereal and bottled water.
“If everything stopped today, we would have four weeks left of supplies,” she said.
Prins said they haven’t turned anyone away and says she has been impressed with the help the Hope Market has received over the past month.
“Gardner and surrounding communities are really good at taking care of their own,” Prins said.
Bratton and Walker, who say they don’t have family to rely on, echoed that sentiment.
“We have never seen a community come together like that,” Bratton said.
