After tenants raised concerns on social media about conditions at Hunter Bloomington Properties, Monroe County officials are considering renter protections at the county level.
Hunter Bloomington Properties manages multiple apartment complexes in Monroe County, including Millennium and Hoosier Court apartments.
Jaynae Johnson is a rising Indiana University junior and began living at Bloom Apartments, managed by Hunter, in June.
Johnson said after a month living at her unit, the air conditioning broke during the recent extreme heat. Temperatures inside her apartment reached 87 degrees, she said.
“It was hot and muggy in here. Like you just walk inside and you would instantly be covered in sweat. It was disgusting. We could not sleep here either. It was way too hot for us to sleep. Our cats were panting," she said. “… It felt dehumanizing in a way.”
Hunter Bloomington Properties declined to comment.
Johnson said contacting someone to fix her air conditioning was difficult.
“I called around six to eight times every single day and no one ever picked up, ever,” she said.
Eventually she contacted Bloomington’s Housing & Neighborhood Development department, which enforces city ordinances for rentals. That’s when she learned that because Bloom Apartments was just outside of city limits, HAND could not help her.
“But to realize that tenants don't have any protections unless you're within city limits was really confusing to me,” she said. “... I rent in Bloomington. I've lived in Bloomington my whole life.”
Johnson decided to film a TikTok video detailing her experience at her apartment. It has almost 36,000 views.
Maintenance arrived three weeks after her initial request, Johnson said, and completed the repair.
Jordyn Galyan, a former resident at Bloom Apartments and a Bloomington native, moved into a unit with her husband in July 2024.
She said she encountered issues with her unit not being move-in ready, but Hunter compensated her by taking a couple hundred dollars off her rent the next month. It wasn’t until her second year living at Bloom Apartments that she began experiencing issues with her air conditioning.
Galyan said she submitted multiple maintenance tickets to fix the issue, but it was never wholly addressed. And because her air conditioning was running constantly, she saw electric bills as high as $800.
“They said they were going to come back with a portable AC unit. Never heard from them again,” she said.
She said her air conditioning was eventually fixed three weeks into August after she showed up at her complex’s main office and sent multiple emails, but weeks of no air conditioning in the unit left mold.
“There was what looked like a spray paint cap that was left in our closet floor, and it looked like they had spray painted over the mold, but they didn't spray paint over all of it,” she said.
But tenants outside of city limits are not the only ones to report poor conditions at Hunter properties.
Jacelyn Stutler, a resident at Sassafras Hill Apartments and social work student at Indiana University, said she has dealt with mold in her unit since moving in.
“It was just like continuously mold growing everywhere,” she said. “It was under our sinks. It was in our closets, in our bedrooms, to the point like I was getting sick. So I actually went to the doctor for it."
Safe & Healthy Homes for Monroe County, an arm of the advocacy group Hoosier Action, has joined efforts with some Hunter tenants, including Johnson, Galyan and Stutler.
Some of the group’s members recently met with county officials to discuss their concerns.
Mitch Carpenter, who does outreach for the group, said resolving one company’s violations does not always produce sustainable, long-term results for tenants. He believes local tenants’ issues are part of a larger problem with property management.
“I think focusing on one landlord or (someone) that's acting worse than the other ones is informative, right? It tells you how bad the other ones can be, but to just lock in on them and kind of penalize them for doing it will only lead to it reproducing itself later,” he said.
The group wants the county to create an independent position to handle tenant complaints, and to provide a public database of rentals and landlords listing code and health violations. The group is also calling on the county to inform renters outside city limits of their rights.
“Tenants want to be protected,” Carpenter said. “They don't want to just be protected. They want to be comfortable, right? They want dignity. And if you are just pushing for profit only, then you're not thinking about dignity.”
County Council member David Henry said the county currently relies on the health department to handle rental complaints, but that only covers issues like mold or other health code violations.
He also said he’s exploring ways to implement a county version of the city’s renter-support programs, including a clearer place for tenants to bring complaints to the county.
“Our renters are every bit as equal as a full-time resident, as someone who's been here 30 years, and should have the same access to government, or at least redressing grievances, regardless of what side of the city boundary they live on,” Henry said.
