Water restored after landlord's failure to pay leaves Rocky Mount community high and dry

"It’s bad," said Christann Silver. "I’m a nurse, out in the field working. I need running water.

"I’ve been towing water out of the ditch behind me to flush my commodes with," she said.

Silver and her neighbors have a lot of questions for the property’s owner, Ronnie House, who admitted to WRAL News that he owes the city approximately $34,000.

"I lost about $80,000 in my main business because of COVID," said House in an phone interview, "I didn’t have extra money to do it, so I made a mistake there. Now I’m trying to straighten it out."

House says he did work out a deal with the City of Rocky Mount, which included him paying $5,000 of his debts on Wednesday. He expected to have the water turned back on the same day, but a property manager told WRAL News that House needed to first sign a contract agreeing he would pay off the rest of his debts.

House was in Greenville Wednesday, and it took until after WRAL's story aired to get the water back on.

"It’s toward the end of the month, no one has money to go out and buy microwaveable food, paper plates, plastic utensils," said one angry resident. "They don’t have money to go into a motel room. I mean it’s just crazy. It’s not good living conditions at all."

The City of Rocky Mount and Councilman Richard Joyner, whose Ward 3 includes the mobile home park, declined an interview with WRAL. The city issued a one-sentence statement reading: “Utility billing information is not public record; therefore, we cannot comment."