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Residents, staff raise safety and utility concerns at Dartmouth Village; management said unresponsive
Summary
Speakers described safety hazards, repeated overdoses and unusually high winter electric bills at Dartmouth Village, which participants said is now operated as Section 8 housing; they reported multiple attempts to contact Wildwood Management with little follow-up and discussed eviction as a last-resort remedy.
Multiple participants at a Columbia social-welfare meeting described persistent safety and habitability concerns at Dartmouth Village, a complex they said was originally senior housing but is now operated as low-income/Section 8 housing. Speakers reported repeated overdoses in a unit, open front doors that allow easy access to strangers, smoking inside units (including in buildings with oxygen-dependent residents) and wiring/utility problems that produce high electric bills for some tenants.
One participant said contact attempts with the management company had produced little action: "We contacted Wildwood numerous times... they just don't want to do the work," the participant said. Speakers also reported a history of high winter electric bills and wiring where hallway utilities are tied into apartment meters, forcing tenants to shoulder heating costs.
Safety concerns were detailed: units have individual smoke detectors that are not tied into a building-wide fire alarm; the pull cords and local alarms mean a single-unit alarm often does not alert all residents. Participants said they had found residents using ovens to heat units and described one apartment with severe clutter and animal concerns that complicated first-responder access.
On enforcement, staff said the town does not own the property and has limited authority to require renovations short of changes that would trigger building-code upgrades. Several participants suggested eviction or stronger action by management as the practical remedies for tenants who create danger to others. One speaker urged escalation to higher town officials to press management to follow its own policies and protect tenants.
Next steps: staff said they will continue weekly calls with management and escalate to a town official when necessary. A named staffer offered to act as a higher-level contact with Wildwood; however, no Wildwood representative participated in the meeting to respond to the allegations.
