MILWAUKEE, Wis. — In August, Davia Washington, her mother, and her young kids woke up, to a nightmare.
"It was horrific, something that I never would've imagined. My son took one foot down, and the water was almost knee high then. Everything was floating," Washington explained.
Washington's basement flooded the night of August 9th. TMJ4's Chief Investigative Reporter, Jenna Rae, was there a week after the flood, after Washington emailed our newsroom asking for help.
"There's toys and everything under here, there's clothes, covers, sheets, blankets, towels. We literally lost everything, literally everything," Washington said in August.
Watch: Milwaukee mother fighting for security deposit after flooding nightmare
"All of this was in the basement," Rae asked.
"Everything was in the basement," Washington responded.
Mold quickly began to grow in her basement, so Washington reported it to the city's housing authority. On September 15, Washington's home failed an inspection and was cited for a multitude of violations, including excessive mold.
A few days after that, Rae went back and visited Washington again after her landlord, Maxine Elder, refused to remove the mold.
"This is our home right now. We don't have anywhere else to go, so we're being forced to live like this," Washington said in September.
The mold has since been remediated, so we followed back up with Washington in February.
"I was not trying to get her [the landlord] in any type of trouble. I just needed to live comfortable, but she wanted us to move after that, so we was forced out," Washington said.
Washington and her family moved out at the end of November, but she said she has yet to receive her $3,000 security deposit.
"Weeks before and days before, I emailed her and stated like 'okay, I'm going to be moving out on this day if you wanna meet me here,'" Washington said.
She said she never heard from her landlord, so she recorded every room of the house the day she moved out. Videos from that day show Washington going room-by-room, showing the condition of the home and narrating where she is.
"I left your keys on the refrigerator, above the fridge, inside of this box, on top of here, so that you know where that is. Everything is in tact, this is the move out. I'm officially moved out right now," Washington said in one of the videos.
Washington said a month after she moved out, she received a check in the mail for $659 from Elder.
"She charged me for removing snow. We weren't there. You can't charge me for removing snow off the property once I'm gone. That's not my responsibility. The rest of the stuff was chicken scratch. It was [illegible]," Washington explained.
TMJ4 saw the letter that was mailed to Washington. Based on what we were able to read, Washington was charged for things like a damaged screen door, kitchen drawer repairs, curtain rods, and window screens.
TMJ4's Chief Investigative Reporter, Jenna Rae, tried calling the landlord, Maxine Elder, twice. Both times, she answered and then hung up. So, we went to her house.
Elder was home, but wouldn't answer the door. While we were on her front porch, she called Rae and threatened to get an attorney, then hung up on Rae, again.
"Three months later, I still don't have like a legit reason why she took all that money. I feel bullied, and I feel robbed," Washington said.
Washington said she plans to take Elder to court to get her money back, while she works to piece her family and their belongings back together.
"We lost a lot during that whole situation with the flood and right after, you know, that even with the mold and losing everything literally, paying hotel fees, living with people, I mean, it just took a lot on our family," Washington explained.
It's a toll, Washington said, was made easier by generous TMJ4 viewers who saw our story back in September.
"I am really thankful for so much stuff and so many people. They made a dream come true for Christmas, they made a dream come true for things that we are missing in our home. I just want to say thank you to every last one of them," Washington said.
If there's something you want Jenna Rae to investigate, email her at Jenna.Rae@tmj4.com.
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