Williams says he has lived in fear since he moved into Liberty four years ago. He has been particularly cautious of his surroundings since the building's owners removed their hired security guards and installed tenants to watch the doors.

"They're giving the drug dealers free reign," Williams says. "We have dealers taking over apartments."

Managers of the apartment building fired their current security staff last week and hired various tenants to take over the positions. They did the same at Disston and Schoolhouse, equally troubled apartment buildings run by the same company, JJJ Properties.

While he acknowledges that the previous security team was unreliable, Williams says the new staff is much worse and claims that the doors are not always manned.

But Cheryl King, who resigned as the president of the tenant's association after being hired by the owners as a security guard, discounts Williams' complaints and insists things are getting better at all three apartments.

"It's better this way," said King, a resident of Schoolhouse Apartments. "Who's going to take better care of our buildings than us? We're the ones who live here."

A receptionist in the apartments' management office said no one was available to comment Wednesday. JJJ Properties majority shareholder, Moussa Yeroushalmi, of Great Neck, N.Y., did not return calls seeking comment.

But a letter to Williams from an attorney representing management dismissed Williams' complaints, insisting that the building's new electronic security system has made residents considerably safer.

JJJ Properties bought Liberty, Schoolhouse and Disston in April 2007 for $3.625 million after a bankruptcy auction held the month before. After closing the sale, the new owners discussed plans to rehabilitate the buildings one section at time.

In December, about eight months after JJJ's purchase, the company was hit with steep fines after city code enforcement officials discovered various violations, including roach, rat and mouse infestation and broken and boarded-up windows.

Douglas Scher, president of Millennium Glass Contracting, said he was hired to replace the windows at Schoolhouse, but was ordered to stop after an argument with management. He later filed a complaint with the city about the owners.

"They needed new windows in there, but they just wanted new glass," Scher says.

But King points to the improvements that are being made, like the newly painted walls and cleaner floors.

"It takes some time, it doesn't change in a day," said King, adamantly defending the owners she now works for, despite complaining to The Press about Schoolhouse's conditions as recently as February.

Resident Bob Scheuring agrees with King.

"I'm pleased with the new owners," he says. "They've done more in a year with this place than anyone else."

Meanwhile, Williams is looking for a way out of Liberty, but ill-managed diabetes keeps him "incarcerated" there, he said.

"The changes they're making here ain't changes," he says. "It's like gift-wrapping a box with nothing in it."

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