Published November 04, 2009 11:09 pm -
Renters living with hole in ceiling
By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer
The hole left when a bathroom ceiling fell on a man last week hasn’t been repaired, and the landlord left on vacation Wednesday.
Joshua Carney, 33, was treated at Muskogee Regional Medical Center and released after a large portion of the wet and soggy ceiling fell and hit him on the head and back.
His wife, Tomika Washington, said Wednesday the hole and the cold air coming in through it makes it almost impossible to warm the second-floor apartment at 3028 Arline Ave. No one can use the room for fear of more of the ceiling falling, she said.
Washington said her landlord, the Rev. Denver Callahan, brought his grandson over to see the damaged ceiling last week. They picked up debris but didn’t mop or clean up the mess, saying it might take a week to fix it.
It’s been a week since the roof fell in, and no one has been back to do repairs, Washington said.
A woman answering the phone at the church Callahan pastors, Abundant Life Fellowship, said Wednesday afternoon that Callahan was out of town.
“He left today to visit his son in Missouri,” she said.
Callahan answered his cell phone, but when asked about the roof and any possible plans to fix it, the phone went dead.
Five hours later, Callahan called back.
He said he doesn’t believe there is any more danger of debris falling from the ceiling.
“I tore down what was loose,” he said.
He said the repairman might fix the hole this week or the first of next week.
Washington said she and her husband asked Callahan to put the family up in a motel until repairs were made, but he said he didn’t have money to do that.
She said she’s been leaving phone messages, but Callahan hasn’t called her back.
She said she doesn’t want her daughters, ages 1 and 8, to go into the room for fear another wet and soggy portion will fall on them and injure them.