Call 4 Action: Quality of life issues at Jefferson Avenue apartment complex in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Tenants at an affordable housing complex on Buffalo’s East Side are concerned about a number of quality of life issues there and they’re calling for action.

Call 4 Action’s Jeff Preval is taking a look at their concerns and the action that’s now been taken.

These problems include theft, bed bugs and an area of the Jefferson Apartments that crumbled beneath someone’s feet.

Mary Chambers contacted Call 4 Action about these issues. She says a couple months ago, she was going down a flight of stairs at 1166 Jefferson Ave. Chambers, who is disabled and walks with a cane, says parts of the stairs buckled beneath her, causing her to fall and suffer some bruises. She provided WIVB News 4 with video and a picture of the damage. After the fall, she was seen by a doctor.

“I was messed up, I was really messed up because I was worried about myself, my back side, my arms because I have issues I’m disabled, really disabled,” Chambers said. “Our neighbors are in fear, they don’t want to speak up; if I got to be the one to speak up for us I’m going to do that.”

Call 4 Action took these concerns to the owner of the apartment complex, People Inc., which says a flooring company came in and fixed the stairs on Thursday.

On the issue of theft, residents are calling for more of a police presence at the complex. On the bed bug issue, People Inc. says an exterminator performed treatments over the past two months.

This is a property that broke ground eight years ago with millions of dollars in funding from the city and New York State.

Last year, Call 4 Action reported on an elevator that broke at the complex.

Here is the full response from People Inc. spokesperson Liz Kahn:

“A flooring company has assured us they will be at the Jefferson Avenue Apartments Thursday morning (October 3) to cover the broken treads on the stairs. They will apply metal nosing until new treads can be ordered and installed. We were not informed of a fall or injury at the Jefferson Avenue Apartments.

We were informed that on May 27, 2024, a tenant filed a police report saying a package belonging to her was taken from the mail area at the Jefferson Avenue Apartments. That is the only report of theft we are aware of in recent months.

People Inc. is extremely proactive in preventing any health concern in our apartment complexes. This includes quarterly checks and continuous maintenance by an extermination company. Within the last 4 months, we have had one tenant report bed bug activity at the Jefferson Avenue Apartments. An exterminator provided treatments in the apartment on August 16, September 3, and September 13 and reported no bed bug activity after the first treatment.

The intercom system was reported broken on August 12, 2024. Our maintenance department examined it the day it was reported and immediately called in a vendor. The vendor worked on it and fixed it by August 22. It has been and is currently working.”

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Jeff Preval is an award-winning anchor and reporter who joined the News 4 team in December 2021. See more of his work here.

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