Cleveland homeowner gets $12,000 check from city for basement damage after 19 Troubleshooter story

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The 19 Troubleshooters have gotten results for an elderly woman whose basement flooded.

She said it’s all because the water department hit a sewer line.

Not happy with what the city was doing for her, she called the 19 Troubleshooters.

“It’s in better shape now than it was before,” said 92-year-old Cleveland Homeowner Mattie Williams.

Williams loves showing off her basement.

As the owner of her house on Nelson Avenue in Cleveland for the last three decades, she’s got a lot of memories down there.

But for the last year and a half, she spent most of her time upstairs.

That’s because back in April of 2022, she says Cleveland water crews hit her sewer line and flooded the basement.

The damage was catastrophic.

Dozens of irreplaceable belongings were destroyed and the cost to fix the whole basement, according to one estimate, was more than $20,000.

After receiving a $1,500 offer from the city, just a fraction of the entire cost, she called the 19 Troubleshooters.

We put calls in to Mayor Bibb’s office and to city council members, and while we didn’t get a call back that day, Williams got an offer a day later.

“$5,000,” said Williams.

Better, but still not enough to even replace her washer, dryer, and freezer.

Williams declined the offer again, not ready to give up.

She then made more calls to city council, eventually getting a final offer of $12,000.

Finally, enough to redo her floor, walls, and replace all of her appliances. She’s thanking the 19 Troubleshooters for getting the ball rolling.

“Until you put it over the air, they wasn’t budging,” said Williams. “You guys did a beautiful job and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Williams’ next project is refilling her new freezer, with a lot more space, with her hard work in the kitchen.

“I’m working on it,” said Williams.

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