Lack of water supply forces residents to leave their homes

Article and Video Courtesy of 

WSVN Channel 7 -- FOX

Miami -- Ft. Lauderdale

Published April 16, 2009

   

NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida condominium has been cut from the county's water supply, forcing residents to leave.

"I got home to cook for my son and i told him to take a shower and he said mom there's no water," said Maria Arce.

Arce and hundreds of other residents living at the Mirassou Condominiums, along Northwest 186th Street and 61st Avenue, came home Wednesday to find no water coming out of their faucets.

Many of the people living in the complex are too young to know what's going on but the parents are keenly aware of the seriousness of not having water to drink or to clean with. "There's a lot of people in my building that have kids, a lot of people with babies. What are we going to have to do, we have to leave," said Roberta Hobson.

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Apparently, the homeowner's association is having trouble keeping up with the mounting water bill. "We are a 310 condo unit. We have now 104 units that have gone into foreclosure," said the Homeowner's Association President, Marlene Leon.

The foreclosures have made it impossible to collect everyone's monthly maintenance to payoff the water bill.

Tenants say they paid $60,000 just two weeks ago, but according to Miami-Dade County, that money went toward what was owed. "We have some good people, good families that live here that would like to continue to live here but to turn off the water and if we can't come up with the $34,000 they're requesting us, we're going to end up losing our homes," said Leon.

Without water, residents are left with few choices. "We're going to have to leave. We're going to have to leave and it's absolutely ridiculous, because we just paid our monthly fees. We just paid our mortgage and to come up with more money to move now, and find another place to go to, that's not fair," said Leslie Louissaint.

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