Tenants describe almost unlivable conditions at Colorado Springs apartments

Cockroach infestations, bed bugs, meth labs, and broken heaters: those are just some of the problems reported by tenants at the Summer Grove Apartments near Austin Bluffs and Academy.

One family reached out to us about the unlivable conditions.

“They {cockroaches} like to hide and you have to literally coat the side of the door, outside and inside, all along the walls… you have to coat that sh** everywhere otherwise you’re going to have cockroaches bad,” said Heather Montgomery.

Montgomery has been taping the edge of her door and vents to keep the bugs out ever since she moved in and saw she wasn’t alone in her apartment.

“It’s just disgusting. You gotta shake your shoes, you gotta shake your socks, you’re close and make sure they’re not in your clothes,” Montgomery said.

She explained that the complex had sprayed for the roaches before, but the treatment didn’t make a difference and the roaches came back.

But even with that infestation, she feels lucky compared to some of her neighbors.

“Luckily, I don’t have the bed bug problems like some people here do,” she said.

Several buildings away, another tenant is dealing with the same kind of problems.

“Bedbugs, roaches, homeless people in and out of the building, sleeping in our hallways,” the tenant described.

She didn’t want to go on camera because she’s scared management will retaliate and try to kick her out, but she’s sick of her three young kids having to live in these conditions.

“In the middle of the night when I get up to make my daughter a bottle, you turn on the lights and you’ll see roaches just scatter all over the place,” she said.

On top of that, both women said their heat barely works, the locks on the building doors are broken, they have water leaks in their ceilings, and Heather said a meth lab just exploded in an apartment above them on Sunday.

They also said they’re paying far more than what they were originally quoted.

“We’re only supposed to be paying like $860 but they tack on all these extra fees so we pay over $1,200 a month for a place that’s infested with all kinds of things.”

But they can’t move because they’re struggling with bad credit and don’t want to pay a fine associated with breaking their lease. Instead, what they want is simple…

“I want management to start caring and doing something about it. I just want this place to change, and if they can’t change it, then they need to burn it down, to be honest,” the anonymous tenant said.

Staff on site refused to comment on the situation when we questioned them, so we called the management company, Vukota Realty and Management. They have not called us back.