A dayslong heat outage at the Karl King Tower high-rise has renewed scrutiny of the building’s owners, as residents describe longstanding maintenance issues and fear of reporting problems.
Heat failed throughout the entire 12-story building late last week. Residents say it’s the latest in a pattern of unresolved concerns, from inconsistent utilities to slow or inadequate responses from property management. City inspectors and the fire marshal have visited the building, but tenants say the broader issues go beyond a single outage.
Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow said he believes the building’s problems reflect decisions made by its owner, TreeTop Development.
“This is intentional by the owners of this property because they do it here, they do it in lots of other places, they know exactly what it is that they're doing and they don't care,” Critchlow said.
Critchlow said many tenants, including seniors, are hesitant to report issues because they fear retaliation or being ignored again.
“The treatment that these residents receive from the property management company is abysmal, and they have created a culture of fear within that building,” he said.
The trustee said those conditions highlight a larger challenge for renters across Indiana.
“We live in a state where we have an imbalance of power, in that landlords exert and have a tremendous amount of power that tenants do not have,” Critchlow said.
Critchlow added that addressing the issues at Karl King Tower will likely require action from more than just government agencies.
“We are going to need to create some sort of community level response to this type of thing because it's not going away,” he said.
Residents are still waiting for full heat restoration. WVPE reached out to TreeTop Development for comment but did not receive a response.
