AUSTIN, Texas — It's been nearly three weeks since a southeast Austin apartment complex issued a mandatory and seemingly illegal indefinite curfew.
Apartment managers have now lifted the curfew, claiming that it was never meant to be sent out in the first place.
"'Make sure you have your provisions before 10 p.m.' It sounds like I'm in some hurricane area where they have martial law – 'stay inside, have all of your stuff you need,'" resident Kristie Broadaway told KVUE when we first met up with her a week prior to the complex's update.
Broadaway has lived at the Array apartments for eight years. In late May, she received a notice from the complex that said it would be instituting a mandatory curfew in place from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. every night.
"If there is in fact a safety concern, tell me that. What is the safety concern? I live there," Broadaway said.
Now apartment representatives have changed their tune, telling KVUE the notice was sent from an associate without approval from management, even though it was signed off on by the property manager. The notice was rescinded on June 13, and the complex has since apologized to residents.
"They had to say something to the residents because I am sure that residents were going in and saying, if they didn't necessarily see it because it was in their email, [they] definitely saw it on the news or saw it on TikTok," Broadaway said.
The new notice Broadaway and others got reads in part, "The notice was incorrectly provided to you by one of our associates without previous management review and approval."
Staff at the Array's leasing office confirmed to KVUE on Friday that the new notice did come from them.
As far as staying in this complex, Broadaway said she has a decision to make.
"I'm thinking about it. I have until the 19th to let them know, and I have serious reservations about living somewhere where possibly again, in the future, you can't go outside," Broadaway said.
Broadaway said this experience reminded her of the importance of speaking up.