DAVENPORT, Iowa — The partially collapsed apartment at 324 Main Street in Davenport has drawn national attention to its structural integrity issues before the tragedy, but for years, former tenants have tried drawing attention to poor living conditions.
"At first it seemed like a good place to live, but you quickly realized that it was just really bad," former resident Mia Lugo said.
Lugo moved into the building in October 2022 but broke her lease, leaving early in January 2023.
"People peed in the elevators pretty frequently so it stunk pretty bad," she said. "I lived on the 5th floor, so I took five flights of stairs up. People's dogs would go to the bathroom all over the place, and nobody would clean it up no matter how many times you'd ask them to clean it up."
Lugo expressed frustration over the lack of help she got from building management.
"When I texted [the manager] or called him about the issues with pee being everywhere, poop being everywhere, he only sent me back an email address," Lugo said.
Another former resident, Elizabeth Gill, thought everything looked fine at first.
"I was shown apartments that were being redone and they were looking beautiful — brand new appliances," Gill said.
Like Lugo, Gill broke her lease early, staying from June 2022 to April 2023.
"When you walk into the building, it's like tile floor," Gill explained. "You could see the dirt, the grime, the food — everything."
Gill also mentioned a neighbor who took things into his own hands.
"He was a veteran and spent some of his disability check money on cleaning supplies, and spent an entire day cleaning that area because the building managers did nothing about it," she said.
Another tenant, Liz Turner, spoke about the issues surrounding trash.
"There used to be a trash chute in the building before they took over and they closed that off — so people up at the sixth floor literally had to carry their trash down six levels, and they would just like drop it down the stairs, and it would just accumulate there," she said.
According to public court documents, the city of Davenport cited 19 violations of garbage overflowing from the dumpster. These violations are from June 2022 to March 2023.
Wold was asked to appear in court on March 24, but did not show up, so the case moved to default judgment on March 27. Wold was asked to pay $4,500 plus court costs and remedy all violations by March 31.
Records indicate Wold has not paid the fine yet. News 8 reached out to the city of Davenport for comment.