A 92-year-old Ohio woman says she’s facing eviction from her apartment despite paying her rent in full every month — and she wants answers.
Alice Billingsley, a longtime resident at the Highland Woods apartment complex in Cuyahoga County, said she received a letter from Ohaven Management Group LLC demanding she vacate her home — a place she’s lived in for the past 16 years.
“If I were a person who didn’t pay my rent, I could understand it,” said Billingsley in a news report early May. “But I haven’t missed paying my rent.”
According to her family, the issue stems from persistent property management failures. The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) reportedly began withholding its share of the rent payments after the complex failed multiple inspections, including one last summer. The CHMA required proof of repairs before resuming payment.
Meanwhile, Billingsley continued paying her own portion of the rent — but repairs never came.
Her goddaughter, Mieshawn Singleton, said management ignored repeated requests for maintenance. Problems in the bathroom and kitchen lingered for months. In April, Billingsley’s refrigerator failed and remained broken for weeks. Singleton eventually purchased a replacement fridge herself to safely store her godmother’s insulin medication.
“They don’t want to fix her refrigerator. They don’t want to do repairs. They don’t want to fill out her paperwork. Where is she left with? What is she left with?” Singleton asked.
The CMHA has now stepped in to help relocate Billingsley to a new home, but her family says more needs to be done to hold the previous management accountable.
In a recent update, staff at the leasing office said a judge had ordered Ohaven to relinquish management of the Highland Woods property. A new firm, Riparian Management, is in the process of taking over, and office representatives acknowledged that a backlog of violations has delayed key services.
Some tenants say they’ve seen signs of improvement in recent weeks under the new management, but for Billingsley and her family, the trauma of nearly being forced out at age 92 still lingers.
