Paying for squalor: Pinebrook Pointe residents living with leaks, rats, raw sewage

The problems at Pinebrook Pointe Apartments couldn’t get any worse. 

Roof leaks. Raw sewage. Swarms of roaches and rats. Black mold. Collapsed ceilings. Windows covered with plywood.    

None of that stopped the owner, KeyCity Capital, from leasing the units. Residents say they were lured into renting low-cost, but faulty apartments at Pinebrook Pointe with promises of future repairs. The fixes were slow to come or never materialized. 

Frustrated with their circumstances, some people turned to the city’s code enforcement. Inspectors have found dozens of violations for units with unsanitary living conditions, according to court records. 

During the company’s four years of ownership, Pinebrook Pointe landed in Environmental Court for at least seven cases with a total of 81 charges related to habitability concerns. A judge found them guilty on more than one-third of the charges. As a result, KeyCity Capital has been assessed more than $4,200 in fines and fees related to the cases, a review by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism found. 

Several apartments in the 248-unit complex have been declared unfit for humans to occupy. During a visit in July, one structure in the 16-building compound was plastered with notices dated June 16, 2025, warning residents to “KEEP OUT.”  

Pinebrook Pointe is one of two properties owned by KeyCity Capital that receives a property tax discount for providing affordable housing. But the Texas landlord has not kept them livable and occupied at the level necessary for the PILOT — or payment in lieu of taxes — subsidy. Pinebrook Pointe and Grahamwood Place Apartments have slipped in and out of compliance since October 2023, when they first defaulted on the agreement. 

KeyCity Capital executives have been promising a turnaround for more than a year to the city’s Health, Educational and Housing Facility Board of Memphis. They’ve appeared at multiple board meetings. But as of last month, they’ve still not shared specific plans on how they will fix the property. The Health and Ed Board will discuss the fate of the two apartment communities on Aug. 6, along with the status of a handful of other properties that are in legal default. 

Tie Lasater, a managing partner for KeyCity, did not respond to emailed questions. But in a previous statement to MLK50, he defended his firm’s efforts to revitalize the two distressed properties. 

“It’s important to note that many of these properties have faced persistent issues dating back well before our involvement,” Lasater said. “When we acquired these properties in late 2021, the PILOTs were transferred to us — and our investment firm, KeyCity Capital, immediately committed nearly $15 million in capital improvements across the six-property portfolio, including Grahamwood Place and Pinebrook Pointe.” 

A picture of neglect

Quentise Cordero needed a place to move, fast, late last year when she first considered Pinebrook Pointe. The complex of fresh-painted light gray buildings backs onto a section of Ten Mile Creek in Parkway Village. There weren’t many amenities, but the asking rent was $599 a month – lower than most prices in the city for a one-bedroom apartment.  

“I didn’t have time to waste, so I needed to get somewhere fast, quick, and this was the option,” Cordero said of her thinking at the time. “But had I known it was this many problems, I would’ve never proceeded with the application.” 

In January 2025, Cordero, 25, said she and her boyfriend were moved into building K after they found mold in the first unit they were offered. One half of the structure had long been abandoned due to fire damage.     

The second unit wasn’t much better. She could smell the trash rotting inside neighboring units that previous tenants had left behind. 

Water leaked from the base of the toilet; Cordero believed it’s what helped spawn the patch of black mold on a nearby wall. A mysterious glue seeped between the cracks of the floors. There was no working air conditioning or heat, and it was in the middle of winter.  

Getting the issues addressed was a hassle. She said property managers feigned concern.  

“They all acted clueless as to why any of this was going on,” Cordero said. “I had some property managers come, and they’d say, ‘wow, I did not know it was this bad over here. I didn’t even know people still lived over here.’ ” 

The tipping point was when human feces gushed out of the bathtub’s drain. 

Other people who spoke with MLK50 had similar stories of neglect. Some asked to remain anonymous because they didn’t want to jeopardize their living arrangement.  

One resident has given up living in their apartment full-time because water damage from roof leaks ruined the furniture and floors. The mildewy smell of wet carpet in the bedroom was overwhelming when a reporter visited last month. They also wanted to avoid the rats that scamper through holes in the walls at night.  

“I went two years without air [conditioning],” a longtime resident said. “They just fixed the air conditioning unit three months ago.” 

Another tenant said they moved to Pinebrook Pointe after the rent was raised by almost $200 at another apartment complex. The air conditioning didn’t work, and there were several fist-sized holes in the wall. They moved in anyway, banking on a promise that a quick fix was on the way. One year later, and the holes are still there, and there’s no air conditioning.

“I don’t even invite people over because it just doesn’t look good,” the tenant said. “You almost have to take them to court to get them to fix anything.”         

Board delays action

Most residents don’t know the Health and Ed Board shares the blame for their experiences. 

Board members are responsible for providing clean and safe affordable housing for people with low to moderate incomes. At least for the last year, Pinebrook Pointe has been discussed several times at board meetings in business terms.

The level of occupancy is a frequent concern. Although the PILOT agreement requires a 75% occupancy rate, the board’s staff reported at a meeting last month that the units at Pinebrook Pointe are only half full. But reaching that goal would first require the landlord to fix critical issues like the roofs and air conditioning.  

Last month, KeyCity Capital’s representatives assembled around the conference room table in the Health and Ed Board’s office downtown to give an update on their progress. The situation at their properties had not improved much except for the hiring of Multi-South, a new property manager. And there were no immediate plans to fix the roofing issues.  

David Shores, a partner with the property management company Multi-South, declined to speak on behalf of his client when reached by phone. But at the meeting, he was clear that Grahamwood Place and Pinebrook Pointe would take months of work. He said the roof repair at Grahamwood Place is “completely inadequate and needs to be redone.” 

“We said to this board two months ago that we thought we could be at 75% (occupancy) by the end of September,” Shores said at the meeting. “That’s an optimistic goal at this point because the rains have not been kind.”

Shores said he could report back in August with a plan that shows what it would take to reach the goal. The board declined to cancel the PILOT and instead voted 3-2 in favor of giving KeyCity Capital 30 more days to deliver the plan. 

While the landlord buys time, tenants like Cordero are on their own.

Cordero said she had to haggle with a contractor who tried to put a layer of plaster over the mold patch instead of replacing the drywall. But the air conditioning in the apartment now works, and the holes under the sink have been covered. They gave her a new toilet, but it isn’t molded to the ground. 

She believes all of this happened because she called the city’s code enforcement.   

“If I never got code enforcement involved, I would’ve still been living here with no heat, no A/C, human feces coming out of my tub, mold behind my toilet,” said Cordero, who moved out of Pinebrook Pointe after resolving a dispute over unpaid fees in eviction court last month.  

Maybe those improvements will benefit the next tenant. 

Michael Finch II is the enterprise reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact him at mike.finch@mlk50.com