LYNN — Michelle Paul used to love living in her one-bedroom, basement-level apartment at 500 Essex St.
Paul, 48, was able to secure this apartment more than six years ago through the Department of Mental Health. She has a mental-health disability and lives on social security.
“We had a beautiful apartment. We loved our apartment,” said Paul.
Cobbet Hill, an apartment complex at 498-500 Essex St. is managed by WinnResidential, an entity of WinnCompanies, the largest manager of affordable housing in the U.S., according to the company’s website. WinnCompanies bought the 116-unit apartment complex in 2017. All units are subsidized Section 8 apartments, according to a regional spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Paul said she never used to have problems with the management office or maintenance until last year, when cockroaches invaded her apartment. Paul packed all of her clothes into trash bags and threw away the infested furniture, including a new living room set she was still paying installments on.
Paul documented the cockroach infestation with photos and videos. In one video, she takes a kitchen blender and hits the base on the counter multiple times. About a dozen insects jump out of the base and scatter around the counter and the wall.
She complained to the new building manager, Keyla Camilo, and other members of the staff. For eight months, she fought both the infestation and the building management to do a proper extermination.
This summer, a new plight struck Paul’s apartment — rodents. Rats and mice found their way into the apartment through at least one hole behind the stove, the resident said. She added that they left droppings everywhere and chewed on Paul’s groceries.
“Right after we spent all our food stamps,” said Paul.
Paul contacted Camilo again ― and again, and again. For three weeks she was texting daily with Camilo and other on-site employees of WinnResidential to get them to send exterminators.
“It is very inhumane, the way they treat us,” said Paul.
“We can hear them in the ceiling and in the walls,” said Paul’s fiancé, Jimmy, 72 — who also lives in the apartment — about the rodents. The couple said that they also have a persistent problem with mildew infesting their furniture.
On Aug. 4, Paul called the Lynn Inspectional Services Department (ISD) and left a complaint about rats, mice, and mildew.
A health inspector came out to the apartment on Aug. 24 and ordered building management to exterminate mice through a licensed exterminator, repair broken floor tiles in the kitchen, and repair a hole in the wall in the living room. Mildew and mold are not covered by the State Sanitary Code, according to the ISD.
On Aug. 4, Paul also went to the management office and fell apart. She yelled at Camilo, who took out her phone and videotaped Paul.
“She had a big smile on her face,” Paul said.
Later, Paul received a letter from WinnCompanies’ lawyers, saying that she can’t approach Camilo or call her, except in case of emergencies, and that all communication should be in writing from now on. Otherwise, the letter stated, they would file for a restraining order.
“WinnResidential takes threats to its team members very seriously. Our staff members are essential workers who are on the frontlines every day caring for our residents and for our communities. We do not and will not tolerate physical or racist threats directed at our team members or their families. Their safety and the safety of our residents are top priorities,” said the company in a statement through its spokesperson, Andrew Raven.
Paul denies yelling racist slurs.
“I am the most nonracist person,” she said, noting that her children are half Black, her fiancé is Black, and her grandson is part Latino. She also denies threatening bodily harm.
“I threatened only to go to the mayor and media,” said Paul.
However, she admits to putting a dead mouse at the management’s office door in desperation on Aug. 5.
Dr. Anthony Erdmann, psychiatrist at Lynn Community Health Center, has been treating Paul since 2017 for psychiatric and substance-use issues. He described Paul as a very nice person, always positive and pleasant.
“Mentally, she is prone to feeling not so good,” said Erdmann about Paul’s depression. “She has been clean after a long struggle to achieve sobriety.”
Erdmann said Paul has been talking about insects and rodents for many months in their sessions.
“Her condition is such that she cannot tolerate such an environment,” said Erdmann.
WinnCompanies said in their statement, “This apartment was treated by a professional, licensed vendor on July 29, Aug. 10 and Aug. 27, and is scheduled for another treatment on Sept. 23. Reports provided by the vendor indicate that there may be housekeeping issues inside this unit that are contributing to any ongoing pest problem.”
When The Item visited Paul’s apartment on Aug. 25, the hole behind the stove was still not patched.
“He has been out twice, and twice he didn’t feel that hole,” said Paul of the exterminator who instead put foam into a different spot, which was already plugged up with steel wool since Paul had moved into the apartment.
There were no traps or signs of rat poison in the kitchen or anywhere in the apartment.
Paul said she hasn’t been using her kitchen for two months because she is scared that a rat might bite her. Instead, Paul set up a small dry pantry and a microwave in a nook of her living room.
“We are not dirty,” said Paul. “You lose your oomph to clean and make things nice when nobody is coming out.”
With the infestations, Paul said she couldn’t have her children or grandson over. Even Jimmy’s personal care assistant, Kelly Smith, stopped coming into the apartment.
Smith connected with Jimmy through Northeast Arc, a disability-services organization based in Danvers. Smith said she has been working for Jimmy for 19.5 hours weekly for more than two years, doing laundry, light housekeeping, and helping them get around.
“It’s been really a tough battle for both of them for quite some time,” said Smith.
Smith said she has witnessed the roaches and the rats. She also noticed mildew on the kitchen cabinets.
“I know that Michelle has made many attempts to contact management and there are some instances where I saw a notice going under her door the day of,” said Smith. “She has been advocating for herself for over a year.”
Smith said that Paul doesn’t like confrontation and is easy to get along with.
“I thought Michelle was going to have a nervous breakdown,” said Smith.
Out of the half-dozen people that The Item talked to in the building, hlf said that they currently have mice.
One person, who asked to remain anonymous, said that management took a long time to respond to complaints and spoke dismissively to them.
Paul’s neighbor Tony, who asked not to use his last name, said that he has been living in this building since 1996. He said there was no problem with mice or roaches before the construction in 2017. In 2019, he started hearing mice in the stove and when he complained to the management he got dismissed.
“Many people don’t bother to go to the management office because of a bad attitude,” said Tony.
In November of last year, he started seeing roaches. He bought a spray and sprayed the kitchen every day. He saw rats last month outside running under the bushes.
“Neighbors are talking to each other but no one is doing anything,” said Tony.
Both Paul and Tony said they talked to the neighbors who were giving up their housing vouchers for the building because of the way it is managed. Tony himself is applying for affordable housing elsewhere.
On Sept. 24, Paul received a court notice. Camilo and WinnResidential have filed for a restraining order against Paul because she called the building manager on Aug. 25, violating their previous notice of no contact.
The court notice suggests that there is another video that Paul allegedly asked maintenance staff to record of herself to send Camilo a message. Paul said she never asked anyone to videotape her for Camilo.
“If there is a video, they taped me without my consent,” said Paul.
WinnProperties did not respond to The Item’s request to see the videos.
By the time Paul was served with the court notice, the building maintenance had fixed the floors in her apartment, changed the air filter, fixed the bathroom sink and bathtub, and promised her a new stove.
Assistant City Solicitor James Lamanna said that the city cannot interfere in this dispute between a landlord and a tenant unless there are sanitary-code violations.
Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) said that the agency doesn’t have any ties with the property since it never owned it and hasn’t been managing the subsidies within the property since the contract expired a few years ago.
Paul is to appear in Housing Court on Sept. 24.
“Now I see why people don’t speak up,” said Paul. “Other people are scared and now I see why.”
Paul said she thinks it is tenants’ intimidation and retaliation.
“My only two options are to stay here or go to a shelter. I have already thought of it,” said Paul.