Lansing sues Holmes Apartments owners as it foots bill for hotel rooms for residents

LANSING — With the city on the hook for hotel bills that are piling up for families displaced from a red-tagged Lansing apartment complex, Mayor Andy Schor's administration has asked an Ingham County judge to intervene and order the landlord to make the 29 unit-facility livable again.

The seven-page complaint filed in Ingham County Circuit Court demands that all locks at the 2222 W. Holmes St. complex be changed “until all repairs are completed and it is safe for occupancy,” violations get resolved within 45 days and defendants provide “safe and hospitable housing” until then.

Residents at Holmes Apartments, southwest of South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard’s intersection with Mt. Hope Avenue, were forced out March 22 after city officials deemed the property unsafe.

The complex is owned by Simtob Management, and company officials have said dangerous conditions at the Holmes complex worsened because of a weather-related accident last fall and various delays. They said they offered to move residents to a complex at 1317 E. Kalamazoo St., but that facility was already pink-tagged for not being up to city codes or having a valid rental certificate.

That led to the city paying for hotel rooms for residents.

City spokesman Scott Bean said in an email that state law prohibits the city from forcing defendants to pay for hotel bills, “so we are seeking legal action to recoup our costs.”

The city, as of Monday, had paid about $1,800 for hotel housing that began Friday for residents who had been living in six Holmes units. Bean said he did not know the total number of residents transferred to hotel housing.

“We still have yet to be served with this complaint; we asked the Court for it first thing this morning,” Brad Simtob said in a Tuesday email where he promised “our absolute best” in giving feedback to the complaint by the end of Wednesday.

Attorneys described the Simtob housing as a "public nuisance."

“The public’s health, safety, peace, comfort and convenience have been disturbed," city attorneys wrote in their complaint. “The Defendants have created and maintained a public nuisance by performing work without a permit, performing work not in compliance with state and local law and neglecting to perform necessary repair work.

“The City of Lansing will suffer irreparable harm if Defendants are permitted to continue use or occupancy of 2222 W. Holmes and disregard correction notices and cited violations because it will create less access to available safe and habitable housing in the City of Lansing and increase likelihood of crime due to the vacancy of a large building.”

Demanding a judgement of more than $25,000, the court complaint lists as defendants Holmes Apartments LLC, Simtob Management & Investment LLC, Good Life Apartments LLC and Richard and Bradley Simtob.

According to the state’s online licensing and regulatory affairs records, the Simtobs are separately listed as the “resident agent” for the three defendant LLCs.

Bean said city staffers visited on Friday the Kalamazoo complex Simtob had proposed to displaced residents. They wanted to see if it was appropriate.

“It wasn’t horrible. It wasn’t dangerous,” Bean said. “It just needed to be brought up to code.”

The $1,800 in hotel costs is as of Monday, he said, and "the city will keep these residents in a hotel until the Kalamazoo property is cleared or until other suitable housing opens for them."

“Obviously, the goal is to get them into permanent housing,” Bean said. “Nobody wants to live in a hotel.”

Contact reporter Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.