Police – NBC 6 South Florida

A Miami mother was arrested after her five children were found living in a roach and garbage-filled apartment, police said.

Dishon Michelle Lopez, 33, was arrested on five counts of child neglect with no great bodily harm, an arrest report said.

Miami-Dade Corrections

Miami-Dade Corrections

According to the report, Lopez lives at an apartment in the 800 block of Northwest 7th Avenue with the five children, who are between the ages of 3 and 16.

Miami Police officials said they began their investigation after they were notified by the Department of Children and Families, who had received a tip about the deplorable conditions.

In December, a witness from Public Housing Community Development reported concerns for the welfare of the children after an inspection showed the apartment in “unsanitary and in deplorable conditions,” the report said.

Inside the apartment was garbage all over the floor flowing into hallways, the report said.

“Hundreds of roaches were seen as the door open[ed] to the incident location,” the report said. “The floor could barely be seen in most of the incident location due to the amount of trash and filth on the floor.”

A 30-day notice was issued to Lopez to correct the issue but a follow-up inspection showed the issues hadn’t been dealt with.

An officer went to the apartment in February and knocked on the door, and a young voice responded saying they would be in trouble if they opened the door without their mother present, the report said.

The officer tried to contact Lopez but her number appeared to be disconnected, the report said.

“No one knows how long the mother has been gone,” the report said.

Miami Police spokesman Mike Vega said when police got a hold of Lopez, she wasn’t even in Miami-Dade and said she didn’t known when she’d be back.

“These conditions are so disgusting, to see all these cockroaches, all this trash that you can’t even walk on the floor because of all this trash, and that these kids had to live in there,” Vega said. “It’s not good for any human being to live in conditions like that.”

The five children were removed from the apartment for “inadequate supervision and environmental hazard,” the report said.

Lopez responded to the police department Thursday and was arrested and booked into jail.