MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A Bay View woman and her family were forced to leave their apartment Tuesday after rain poured through their ceiling, which had been leaking for months.
Brittany Tuchalski said her apartment ceiling has been leaking for about two months, with multiple attempts to get help from her landlord and city inspectors.
"Once it started raining we put all this out again today," Tuchalski said, referring to the buckets and pots placed around her kitchen to catch the water.
The situation worsened significantly last week during a thunderstorm when part of the ceiling caved in.
Watch: Bay View woman and children forced to leave apartment after partial ceiling collapse
"It wasn't this bad at first," Tuchalski said. "The last time we had the big thunderstorm, that's when the ceiling caved in."
The damage created hazardous conditions in the apartment, where Tuchalski lives with her partner and three children.
"It's now leaking through the walls, there's a bubble over there, it's coming out from that way by the outlet, so that's like a hazard," Tuchalski showed TMJ4.
Tuchalski reached out to TMJ4 after she said the landlord would not properly fix the problem. Tuchalski said the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) had been out several times too.
"Nobody's helping me. I tried to go through the Department of Neighborhood Services so many times," Tuchalski said. "I'm just running out of ideas of who to talk to and how to get this fixed cause I have kids. We pay $1,200 a month here, it's not okay."
After Tuchalski contacted us Friday morning, DNS inspectors visited the property and gave the landlord a 30-day notice to make repairs.
When asked if someone should be fixing the issue immediately, Tuchalski responded, "Immediately yeah, at this point because it's so bad."
We called landlord Debra Hoffman, who refused an interview, but stated she wasn't ignoring the situation and was getting it fixed.
We called DNS Tuesday about the safety concerns. Later that afternoon, inspectors returned and deemed the apartment unsafe, forcing Tuchalski, her partner, and their three children to evacuate.
"Stressed. I've been crying non-stop. Sorry. This is just ridiculous. The way that we are being treated by the neighbor, by the landlord, it's insulting, it's embarrassing," Tuchalski said as the family was leaving.
Tuchalski said she's now working with Community Advocates to find resources and temporary housing.
Reporter Jenna Rae has done dozens of reports about problematic landlords in our area. If you want her to look into something, email her at Jenna.Rae@tmj4.com.
This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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