After eight years, blinds justice still being sought

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005 | 7:21 a.m.

Talk about a landlord turning a blinds eye to a tenant's complaint.

In 1997 Jane Martin put in a request to the Las Vegas Housing Authority to repair or replace faulty vertical blinds in her one-bedroom senior low-rent apartment at the Robert Gordon Plaza, 10th Street and Stewart Avenue.

Eight years later, the defective blinds still hang in her unit.

The story of Martin's bad blinds was first told in a Nov. 12, 1997, Sun story about public housing tenants' complaints of slow responses from the agency. Then and now, Martin said that the openings from the defective slats create safety concerns because people can peer into her home.

Housing Authority officials say they thought the matter was resolved long ago based on an original work order that apparently did not make it clear that the maintenance worker was to repair or replace the blinds.

The policy is to respond to nonemergency matters within 10 days, five days better than the limit set by the Housing and Urban Development Department for addressing public housing tenant work orders, officials say.

That is little comfort to Martin, 73, a longtime local animal-rights and senior-rights activist. She has seen two presidential elections come and go and watched unleaded gasoline prices climb from $1.40 a gallon to more than $2.60 since she filed her work order Sept. 9, 1997.

"I am in distress over this whole thing, and I want justice. And in this case justice is blinds -- working blinds," Martin said.

She stressed that she has made occasional repeat complaints about the blinds to housing workers, including the authority's inspectors during their annual checks.

"I made my last complaint about the blinds about a year ago," she said. "I have purposely not complained constantly about them because, quite frankly, I became curious to see just how long it was going to take for them to fix the problem.

"Now the whole thing has just become one big pain in my aspidistra (a plant in the lily family)."

The problem with Martin's blinds is that a faulty slat rotates independently and, when adjusted to the closed position, the one next to it opens and so on. If several slats are adjusted so that they overlap awkwardly, the whole system jams when the blinds are opened.

Eight years ago, then-affordable housing Director Parviz Paul Ghadiri said replacing tenants' blinds was "not as easy for me as going down to Home Depot."

Ghadiri, now Las Vegas Housing Authority executive director, said he thought the problem with Martin's blinds had been resolved eight years ago and was surprised to learn this week that it is still an issue.

"Work Order 080637 was submitted on Sept. 9, 1997, and was completed on Sept. 12, 1997," Ghadiri said, calling Martin "an excellent tenant." He said he has talked with "my friend Jane" on several occasions over they years and does not recall Martin mentioning that her blinds were still a problem.

In addition to the blinds issue, Martin's work order called for repairing a shower knob and fixing a sliding door that had gone off track, Ghadiri said.

"From my research, it appears the work order was to check, not to replace, the blinds," said Richard Martinez, an assistant director who oversees the agency's maintenance force.

Martinez said he could find no follow-up order to repair or replace the blinds. That would indicate to housing officials that the matter had been resolved on the initial visit, he said.

After an inquiry by the Sun, a Housing Authority worker was sent to Martin's apartment to again check the blinds. Martinez said the agency has decided to replace Martin's blinds, which are a size not in stock, and they will have to be specially ordered.

Ghadiri said the Housing Authority's policy is to repair or abate emergency problems -- such as flooding, nonworking air-conditioning systems, no electricity, no heating, no water, sewage stoppages and nonworking stoves and refrigerators -- within 24 hours.

The Housing Authority has "an excellent record" of responding to tenant complaints much faster than that -- a claim supported by HUD, he said.

A HUD report this year said that in fiscal 2004 the Las Vegas Housing Authority responded to all 6,459 emergency work orders within 24 hours. The same report found that the agency took 72,708 calendar days to respond to 20,539 nonemergency work orders -- an average of 3.54 days per work order, about one-third of the time allowed under the HUD standards.

Martin agrees that the Housing Authority is not slow to respond to all issues.

"Several years ago when my apartment flooded during a heavy rain storm, they replaced my carpet right away," she said.

HUD's Public Housing Assessment System for fiscal 2004 gave the Las Vegas Housing Authority a score of 90 out of 100 for management of public housing programs -- a "high performer" rating, the overseeing agency said.

Five years ago the Housing Authority established an after-hours, weekend and holiday phone number for tenants to file emergency work orders -- 922-6020. Ghadiri said tenants who do not get their nonemergency repairs satisfactorily addressed within 10 days can contact him at 922-6850.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or koch@lasvegassun.com.