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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Child Protective Services is investigating a South Memphis renter after her landlord called social workers with concerns about how her children were living.

She said four young children, all five and under, were living in trash and filth at the apartment on 300 Lucy Avenue. It's a quarter mile down from Aretha Franklin’s childhood home.

WREG went there on Monday and saw the rooms covered in trash, waste and bugs.

“It’s like the BFI dump site is on the inside of the apartment," said landlord Glenda Glinsey. “The only thing I could think about was third world."

Glinsey said that was her first reaction to seeing its condition.

She said she was trying to reach the tenant who was behind on rent.

“To my surprise, when the door opened, trash ran out on my feet.”

She said the worst part is four small children had been staying in there.

“These children were actually lying in the trash and I saw one of them little kids eating off the floor.”

She said she offered to have someone help clean up, but they refused.

“I try to keep the housing affordable.”

Glinsey said she called Child Protective Services, but the tenants dodged the state worker and moved out.

Code enforcement then cited the place as unfit to live.

On Monday, the renter in question showed up to get her mail. We asked her about kids living in those conditions.

“Do you want to say anything about it?" asked WREG's Bridget Chapman.

"Yes," said Wanda Brandy. "My kids don’t stay there. She put us outside and what’s in there now is from the crackheads that stay there now.”

However, several neighbors told us they saw kids living in that apartment in those conditions and there were kids’ shoes and a cradle inside.

“I don’t want these children growing up thinking this is the way you live," said Glinsey.

Something other tenants agreed with.

“We’re raising these children who are going to become the future and if you care about anything, you got to care about that," said another tenant Miss Jackson.

The landlord told WREG she’s going to start evicting people sooner in the hopes of getting the place back on track…and is also working on a non-profit organization to help people in these situations.

She says this renter in question started living there last fall and had MIFA helping out with her rent, until she recently stopped paying.

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