Property owner of Jacksonville Eastside complexes responds to comment by US Senator Marco Rubio

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Eastside Gardens and Eastside Terrace apartments received incredibly low Real Estate Assessment Center inspection scores and now the property owner is speaking up about the issue.

Action News Jax reporter Ben Ryan spoke with property owner Andrew Podray who is saying he’s not 100 percent to blame.

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Neighbors at both complexes say it doesn’t matter if it’s clean. Problems still exist, and they want something done.

Sarah Stewart, a tenant at Eastside Terrace apartments, says the problems could be written down like a grocery list.

“It’s not just mice either, it’s the mold, it’s the plumbing, it’s the stairs. I can make you an itemized list of everything going on and there’s only so many times you can patch over,” Stewart said.

She let the Action News Jax crew inside her apartment to look and it was clean as a whistle, but she said that doesn’t matter.

“If your neighbors have mice, you’re going to have them,” she said.

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In an email to Action News Jax on Wednesday U.S. Senator Marco Rubio had choice words for the property owner, calling him a “slumlord.”

“I’m disappointed with Marco Rubio. I have sent Marco Rubio two emails and I feel as if Marco Rubio seemed to be naive in how actually HUD actually works and I feel as if I’m being railroaded in this endeavor,” Podray said.

Podray says the pandemic is a big reason for the low scores, but debated the conditions aren’t as bad as the REAC scores make it seem.

“Am I responsible? Absolutely. The buck always stops with the landlord. The landlord has a responsibility to make sure there isn’t mold, there isn’t roaches, there isn’t rats or vermin’s or any of these other poor living conditions,” he said.

He said he spent around $150,000 of his own money on a new roof, laundry equipment, doors and windows and even sent Action News Jax receipts to prove it.

“I have to make a judgment call as an owner of these apartment complexes and that is, do I go in and do things like fill holes and replace vents above ovens? Or do I make sure the roof is solid so none of this perpetuates itself in the future,” Podray said.

As for Stewart, she’s not buying it.

“You don’t live that kind of lifestyle, you wouldn’t want to live in that, so what makes you think it’s OK for us to live in it?” she said.

Action News Jax tried reaching out to the local HUD office, looking to see what specifically they are responsible for, but nobody answered the phone.

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