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Following the discovery of black mold at The Bridges apartment complex, some students had to vacate at the beginning of this month.
“To give me 5 days notice to move is kind of ridiculous,” said The Bridges tenant Tristen Ruesch.
Ruesch is about to graduate, and is living in a hotel.
“Honestly, the nicest thing is the continental breakfast,” said Ruesch.
In January, Ruesch found black mold in his closet at The Bridges.
“I went to go to the bathroom very normal and I stepped in some water outside my closet and I was like oh, that’s not good,” said Ruesch.
Ruesch lived with the mold until the end of March, when he was given a 5 day notice to vacate because of the problem.
“I’m not gonna completely unpack, I don’t have the space in here to completely unpack,” said Ruesch.
He is now living in a hotel in Prospect park, not too far from campus.
“They gave us a 14-90 day window for how long we might be here,” said Ruesch.
Ruesch is graduating in less than a month. To deal with his displacement, he turned to student legal services.
“Sometimes we’re able to resolve things with just a simple letter to the landlord, sometimes it goes all the way to litigation,” said student legal services attorney, Adam Elling.
Elling frequently helps students get their security deposits back or get housing repairs fixed in a timely manner.
” I think a lot of times students just feel kind of helpless. They don’t know what they can do and they feel like well…this is student housing you know maybe I shouldn’t expect anything good,” said Elling.
Ruesch is waiting to see how long he is in the hotel, before he takes further action against The Bridges.
There are at least 17 other displaced tenants from The Bridges, currently staying in the same hotel as Ruesch.
When reached for comments, The Bridges apartment complex said they are “working diligently to assess and resolve the situation as thoroughly and quickly as possible.”
If you live in the city of Minneapolis and have housing issues, student legal services recommends contacting the city first, which can send inspectors.
