A Houston family finds their Thanksgiving overshadowed by an unwelcome visitor—raw sewage—flooding their Asbury Park Condominiums' home. Darryl Hall, revealed that for days his home has been inundated with a sewage deluge, making even the simple act of comfortably living an unreachable luxury for his family, which includes infants. "This been going on for like the past four days. It’s been on and off on and off, but it never got this bad," Hall told Click2Houston.

Unfortunately, the complaints of mismanagement extend beyond the Halls and their abode. At the La Serena Apartments in Spring Branch, the situation seems to be resoundingly similar, if not worse. Here, the sewage problem has become a grotesque routine, leading one renter, who wished to remain unnamed, to describe his home as "kind of a slum." He told ABC13, "The raw sewage is overflowing to the point where it's getting to the brim, and you have to literally, physically scoop it out with a two-liter pitcher."

These harrowing conditions have drawn the attention of the Houston Health Department, which has received more than 30 complaints, resulting in citations against the La Serena complex. Meanwhile, residents have been effectively slapped with an additional $100 surcharge as management dumps the responsibility on tenants for items improperly flushed down the toilet. "It was kind of a slap in the face," a renter confided to ABC13. City Council Member Amy Peck has acknowledged the gravity of the situation, suggesting the possibility that "they'll be taken to court with the possibility of getting their apartment complex taken away from them."

Houston's authorities have encouraged tenants enduring such blight to report their circumstances, assuring efforts will be made to hold negligent landlords to account. Until then, families like the Halls and the denizens of La Serena continue to wage their daily battles against a tide of neglect, with the hope of securing a level of basic human dignity within their homes.