Photos from inside Tymber Skan, Orlando’s worst condo complex

It’s 8 a.m., and there’s almost nobody out on the streets. Just blocks away, in other condo and apartment complexes, kids are walking to school and people are getting ready for work. Here, save for an asbestos crew cleaning up a building in preparation for demolition, and a handful of people sitting on front porches, there’s no sign of life. Most of the buildings are boarded up, and some are burned out. Dumpsters overflow with trash. Nobody’s been tending to the grounds.

In three weeks, OUC has announced that it’s going to turn off water to two sections of the complex because the homeowners association has failed to pay its bills; the county has notified residents that it will help them find new places to live if they just call the number listed on the door hangers they’ve posted around the complex. Meanwhile, just two miles away, tourists shop for Ferragamo shoes and Tiffany jewelry at the Mall at Millenia, oblivious to the decay that’s less than 10 minutes away from them. Welcome to Tymber Skan condominiums.