OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — A year prior to her eviction, Nicole Williams said she started having major concerns about her Jones St. apartment complex.
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"They were coming in and doing drugs in the hallway, busting out windows in the hallways, letting their dogs crap in the hallway, sometimes people crap in the hallway, waking up to people sleep in the hallways," said Williams.
Williams said trying to communicate the problems to her landlord, William Stanek, didn't work — so she filed a formal complaint with the city.
"He never trying to fix anything, you know what I mean. You could tell he just didn't care," said Williams.
In digging through public records, we found her complaint towards Stanek was not the only one.
Chief City Housing Inspector Scott Lane says 9 out of the 12 apartments in Stanek's building currently have an open violation case — including holes in walls, broken floorboards, water leaking from ceilings and even missing doors to the building.
"It's horrible here," said Williams.
Another tenant says he's experienced similar issues with the living conditions, adding it's disappointing to see his neighbors be evicted during a pandemic.
"It's everybody's dream in this building to move out of this building, so that goes to say something,” said the tenant.
Williams said that, although she filed complaints about the building, it was home.
She said after being evicted due to a loophole in the system, it's opened her eyes to a much larger housing issue in the city.
"The biggest problem is there is nowhere for us to go. If I’m being honest, we’re looking for places to go. There is not a market for us," said Williams.
We reached out to Stanek to talk about not only the complaints made against him, but also this loophole he's using to evict tenants.
He never returned our phone calls.
Lane said the city does inspections, giving the landlord proper time to fix the issues.
If they are not fixed, it could result in fines or even jail time. Court documents show Stanek was fined at least four times and put on probation at least once in the last four years.
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