Former Victory Square tenants adjust to life after deplorable living conditions

CANTON − Even on sunny days, Heavinly, Zion and Younique Clark often couldn’t play outside when they lived at Victory Square Apartments.

“It wasn’t safe,” said their father, Pete Clark, referring to the drug activity and violence he witnessed during his six years at Victory Square.

Inside the apartment complex, things weren’t much better for them. Clark’s two-bedroom apartment had an exposed radon pipe in the living room, an unusable shower and nearly a dozen other building code violations.

Their mother’s third-floor apartment at Victory Square contained busted heating vents and plumbing issues. She couldn’t carry Zion’s wheelchair up the stairs, so he often had to crawl up the broken stairs and over the apartment’s moldy carpet that was soft from sustained water damage.

Pete Clark and his children were among the first tenants to leave Victory Square after federal housing officials deemed the 81-unit, three-building complex unsafe and unsanitary, and issued special tenant protection vouchers to help them find better housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in May 2024 took the unusual step of moving as many as three dozen tenants to hotels. It’s been roughly a year since the last tenants left the hotel and moved into new homes.

The Canton Repository caught up with the Clarks and several other tenants to see how they’ve adjusted to life after Victory Square.

Where are Victory Square tenants now?

Of the roughly 20 former Victory Square tenants who could be located, about half of them have found a better place to live.

Others found themselves in deteriorating conditions and contacted city officials and local agencies to help address the issues. The Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority temporarily ended a housing contract for five apartments where former Victory Square tenants live due to health and safety concerns that weren’t promptly addressed.

Here are some of their stories:

Clark family: ‘Everything is better here for us’

Pete Clark, left, checks a folder his son, Zion Clark, brought home from school, as Zion, 7, shares his day with his sisters, Heavinly, 8, and Younique, 3, outside their home in northwest Canton. The Clarks moved to the home more than a year ago after their former home, Victory Square Apartments, was deemed to be unsafe and unsanitary.

On a recent sunny day, Heavinly and her 3-year-old sister, Younique, waited eagerly outside on the porch steps of their northwest Canton home for their brother, Zion, to come home after his first day of school.

They cheered when the school bus pulled up to the end of the alley, and, despite their father’s wishes for them to put shoes on, the girls gingerly stepped barefoot into the paved alley to greet their brother.

Pete Clark no longer worries about his children venturing outside. The family now lives in a three-bedroom home owned by the nonprofit group Canton For All People, which had been working with Victory Square tenants since at least 2023.

When Heavinly was asked what she thought of Victory Square, the 8-year-old turned her thumb to the side – not a thumbs up, nor a thumbs down. She misses her old school, but didn’t enjoy being stuck inside the apartment so much.

Heavinly Clark, 8, sits outside her home in northwest Canton as she talks about previously living in Victory Square Apartments, which federal housing officials deemed to be unsafe and unsanitary.

When asked what she thought of her new home, Heavinly gave two enthusiastic thumbs up. She rattled off the names of the neighbors who have a trampoline and pool that they like to visit, and the new friends she’s made in the neighborhood who ride her school bus.

“Everything is better here for us,” she said.

Zion, 7, agreed. He especially likes that he no longer must share a bedroom with his sisters. He hopes to decorate his room with a Spider-Man theme.

Tiffany Taylor: ‘I gained everything back’

Tiffany Taylor talks about moving to her apartment in northeast Canton in 2024 after living in Victory Square Apartments for nearly nine years. She said the move has changed her life.

Tiffany Taylor was homeless before she moved into Victory Square in 2015.

“That part, I was grateful, that they accepted me to be there,” she said. “I didn’t have anywhere to go.”

But not long after she moved in, Taylor fell in the hallway and injured her foot. Then, the ceiling of her upstairs apartment caved in and water leaked into the living room and kitchen, causing her light fixtures to sizzle. She didn’t move to a lower-level apartment until 2022.

When federal housing officials relocated Victory Square tenants last year, Taylor refused to move into the same apartment complexes where most of her neighbors were going. She instead spent five months living in a hotel while she worked with the relocation agency to find better housing.

It has been a year since Taylor moved into her two-bedroom apartment in northeast Canton.

Standing in the hallway, Taylor beamed as she talked about using the extra bedroom for her three grandchildren, who were born within the past 15 months.

“I lost everything being at Victory Square — being on the wrong path and being around negativity,” said Taylor, who still cannot walk well without a foot brace. “When I moved, I gained everything back. Most important was my sobriety. I’m really grateful for that.”

Within the past year, Taylor has resolved her outstanding legal issues and saved enough money to buy a vehicle. She no longer worries about neighbors banging on her door to beg for money or food. Her new neighbors often help carry in her groceries.

Tiffany Taylor has decorated her apartment with family photos. She said leaving Victory Square Apartments has changed her life.

Other tenants who reported living in better conditions include Bridgett Edison, who struggled to climb the stairs to her third-bedroom apartment at Victory Square. Edison used her voucher to return to her hometown in eastern Michigan, where she said she has regained her health and can walk outside to take out her trash or check her mail without problems.

Annah Williams, who had become the spokesperson for Victory Square tenants, said she and her family are now living in a former Habitat for Humanity house in southwest Canton. The three-bedroom, single-story home gives the four-member family the space they need and it sits in a quiet neighborhood. She said their landlord, Todd Larson, has promptly addressed the minor issues they’ve reported.

“It’s a complete turnaround,” she said.

Williams said the positive outcomes still do not excuse the challenges and delays that so many former Victory Square tenants faced in trying to obtain suitable housing. She said broken promises and miscommunication by the agencies involved with the relocation traumatized many families and led some tenants to accept less-than-suitable conditions.

Some ex-Victory Square tenants may be moving again

More than a dozen former Victory Square tenants moved to Hillview Apartments, a 56-unit, five-building apartment community at 1884 Sixth Street NE, and two other apartment complexes managed by RAL Property Investment of Beachwood.

Some of the tenants, who asked not to be publicly named because they fear retaliation, described their apartments over the summer as approaching Victory Square conditions because they say issues with pests, plumbing, mold and drug activity aren’t being promptly addressed.

One tenant shared photos and videos of sewage flowing from his bedroom to his living room. He said it took two months for the management company to look at the issue and roughly 20 minutes for them to fix the leak. Shortly afterward, his upstairs neighbor’s apartment flooded and feces dripped down the walls of his apartment.

Instead of waiting months and years for the management company to respond to their complaints, like they had at Victory Square, multiple tenants contacted the Canton Building Department, Community Legal Aid and the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority, which pays the rental subsidies associated with the tenants’ vouchers. Each of the agencies responded and is working to help resolve the issues.

Denita Johnson, executive director of the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority, said five of the Hillview units failed two inspections last spring due to issues that included health and safety concerns, plumbing and water issues, appliance repair needs, general maintenance, electrical and lighting problems, and missing or malfunctioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Johnson said the required repairs weren’t made timely, and the housing authority ended its housing assistance payment contract and associated rental payments for the five Hillview units on July 31. The agency provided the tenants with 90-day vouchers to search for new housing.

Robert Lavine, managing member of RAL Property Management, told the Repository in August that the tenants would not need to move. He said the required repairs, which he described as minor, had been mostly completed and he was working with the housing authority to schedule a reinspection.

“It’s not a Victory Square situation,” said Lavine, whose company is listed in public records as the managing entity for Coastal Line Homes that owns the property under the individually owned apartment units at Hillview. “They are not being forced out.”

Johnson said the five Hillview units passed reinspection on Aug. 29, and SMHA reinstated its housing contract, which means the tenants do not need to move. She said some tenants want to continue looking for other housing, while others plan to remain in their units.

Reach Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kweir@gannett.com.