Weeks after JXN Water shut off water access to residents of two Jackson apartment complexes where the agency says property owners have racked up over $100,000 in unpaid water bills, the City of Jackson has launched a new task force aimed at holding landlords accountable for neglect.
“We’re committed to making sure residents in Jackson have access to water and a safe home, and we’re taking action to support them and encourage all landlords to do right by their tenants,” Mayor John Horhn said in an Aug. 7 City of Jackson press release. “This task force is about making sure every Jacksonian, no matter where they live, can count on having a place that’s healthy and secure. We’re here to listen and take action.”
Horhn, a former state senator, has led the capital city for just over a month. While talking to reporters at City Hall on July 29, he said the task force would be made up of people who would be “looking out for the best interest of tenants.”
The task force will be “dedicated to ensuring every resident has access to safe, reliable, and sanitary housing” and will hold landlords accountable for neglect, City of Jackson Communications Director Nic Lott said in the Aug. 7 press release.
Aisha Carson, JXN Water’s lead communications officer, told the Mississippi Free Press in May that at least 10 complexes were delinquent on water bill payments and at risk of losing access to water.
“Our goal is always to avoid interrupting service to tenants who have no control over their landlord’s choices. However, when legal remedies stall and there is no good faith effort to resolve the debt, we’re left with no option but to prepare for service disconnection,” she said.
The shutoffs have led some tenants to find new housing, while others have remained.
Although Blossom Apartments owner Tony Little acknowledges that he owes on the water bills, he disputed JXN Water’s calculation of the bill while talking to reporters on July 29, saying that the company’s system for measuring water usage is faulty.
Ernest Ward, the president of the Association of South Jackson Neighborhoods and a longtime resident of the Cedar Hills neighborhood, thinks the City should do more to make sure that landlords are taking care of their tenants and not abandoning their responsibilities.
On the morning of Aug. 7, Willie Bozeman, Horhn’s interim chief or staff, invited Ward to join the City of Jackson’s newly formed housing task force, to help ensure more oversight of the city’s landlords, Ward told the Mississippi Free Press.
Ward, who accepted, said he does not know yet how exactly the task force will operate, but looks forward to advocating on behalf of renters who occupy both apartments and homes in Jackson. “We’ve got to make (landlords) accountable to do right by people and not run away with people’s money,” he said.
The Housing Task Force’s other members included Brian Burns, Theresa Crisler, Robert Ireland, Johnnie Patton, Emma Redding, Rebekah Staples, Stuart Tiery, Jennifer Welch. Horhn’s administration anticipates someone from JXN Water will also join the task force, Lott told the Mississippi Free Press.
“Our job is to be the voice for tenants who feel powerless,” Patton said in the press release. “We’ll work hard to make sure their concerns are heard and addressed.”
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