Residents from an apartment complex in Shelbyville staged a demonstration in Nashville Friday, in front of the offices of their property manager. They made the hourlong drive to ask for safer accommodations while their apartments are under renovation.
They live in a complex called Canterbrook Village in Bedford County, but they were relocated by Elmington Property Management to nearby Shelbyville Inn. There, resident Tia Wright says she encountered bed bugs and other unsafe conditions. She says she won’t let her 12-year-old daughter stay with her out of fear for her safety.
“I feel like they’re trying to treat us like little cockroaches,” Wright says. “That we can just move here, there and everywhere.”
A handful of tenants stood outside the company’s offices, holding signs with images of dirty hotel rooms that said, “Would you stay here?”
While no one from the company met with the tenants in person, a representative from the property management company called Wright while she was at Elmington’s offices. They offered to move her to a different hotel.
“I’m happy I’m moving,” she says, “but I’m worried about other people too.”
This isn’t the first time Elmington has made the news for displacing residents. They were criticized after the 2020 tornado for giving tenants short notice to relocate.
Elmington Property Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM