GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The tenants of the apartments on Summit Avenue paused as translators relayed their suffering to the city council members.

• Dozens of violations were found at apartments on Summit Avenue
• Five children died in one of the units following an apartment fire months ago
• Many of the tenants are refugees and don't speak English

The community meeting was scheduled after over a hundred violations were found at the apartment complex.

The poor conditions started gaining attention months ago after five children died in a fire in one of the units. Rats, mold, leaks, power and water outages were just a few of the problems the residents talked about.

Many of them are refugees, and don't speak English. They say they had brought their issues to the landlord multiple times over months, but nothing was ever done.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said the city didn't inspect more because the complaints never made it past the landlord.

"When we have a new population coming in, they have to know what their rights are and they had not exercised their rights cause they didn't know what they were entitled to," she said.

No set resolution was proposed, but now that the issues have been brought directly to official, but the mayor believes change will come.

"I don't think that she should get another extension. They have not done a good faith effort in getting over here since these units were cited and making repairs," she said.

No representative from the landlord was present at the meeting.