Woodcliff Community

We moved here because it is close to Ft. Drum and allowed us to have a pitibull. The house is pretty old but I liked the fact that the neighbors are laid back, and there is a backyard. This housing area is really close to Walmart and it’s a short drive to Watertown. Some of the things I didn’t like are that you have to provide your own trash can, no microwave, no window coverings, old stove and the walls are thin. Upon moving in, it seemed like the tenants before us did not clean the appliances or bathrooms. It’s the location that makes living here good.

As my PCS draws near I feel it is time to celebrate and write a review of this place that I have suffered through living for the last year. I do realize however that writing this review is fruitless as like most of us, you will be forced to live here as Watertown is overcrowded and lacks housing for those in the military with pets.
I would like to start off by saying that the city of watertown has profited quite a bit from its military population. The property owners have taken advantage of the lack of available housing and they gouge us. We are forced to live in substandard housing for the cost of your entire BAH. They don’t update the facilities, yet the rent stays high.
Woodcliff is not alone in this, so I don’t have any qualms with this particular factilty as they are merely following suite with all of the other rental properties. I came to live here as my landlord in sackets harbor failed to mention she had not paid property taxes in the last two years and was nearing foreclosure on the house I was paying through the nose to live in (to put rent costs into perspective, I am an O3 and rent was my entire BAH to live in the lower level of an old and out of date Victorian on broad street). Knowing these facts and that my landlord is known As nutty cutty throughout town, I decided to move out at the first opportunity and move into a 2.5 bedroom at Woodcliff.
Now that I have bored you with my backstory, let me break this review down into pros and cons.
Pros:
1. Woodcliff is not managed by someone referred to as nutty cutty
2. I am 1 mile from post. I literally get up 20 minutes before I report to work!
3. Woodcliff will install a fence for your doggy peeing convenience. The fence is super crappy, but none the less, it is a fence and I don’t have to walk the dogs in subzero temps before work in the morning.
4. The handyman is super nice. He can’t turn the appliances into modern working things, but he is really friendly and tries to make the best of what you have.
That’s about where the pros end…
Cons:
1. Rent is BAH based. I guess this is a pro for some, but I am not sure why I pay the same as the 4 E3s living next two me that have parties every night and like to park behind me. But hey, more power to them. I just wish I paid 900 $ or less a month too, as I am living in the same dump. I’m not sure why my being an O3 makes my house more valuable. I pay $ 1200 a month for the exact same crap hole.
2. The dishwasher and garbage disposal do NOT work. The awesome handyman came out and removed the trapped gunk from the disposal and drained the moldy water from the washing machine that collected due to too much water running into the one side of the sink. He offered his sympathies but basically told us the dishwasher is the cheapest money can buy and that you cannot use the disposal or run a large quantity of water down that half of the sink or else the dishwasher will flood again. So we wash the dishes by hand and toss veggie waste out in the trash.
3. Your neighbors are likely to be partiers /​hoarders. But this is a military town so that isn’t a negative against woodcliff. They can’t screen for jerks.
4. Woodcliff is former 808 housing, meaning it used to be run by FT Drum but was sold off to the highest bidder. I don’t know history timeline, but I can tell you it does not look like a single update has been made to this place. Old Formica countertop that in places extra Formica has been glued on top of it to cover damage, in other places it is just completely missing. You can guess how gunky and gross this would make a kitchen countertop. The sink faucets are so covered in calcium /​lime buildup I had to suppress vomit the first time I brushed my teeth in the sink. I can thank woodcliff for giving me a stronger stomach as I no longer gag when using the sink (I have tried CLR and other lime removers, but this is decades old buildup, my efforts were fruitless).
5. No insulation. Hot as hell in the summer. You will need to buy a bedroom AC unit, this will help for sleeping. Cold as heck downstairs in the winter, but boiling in the upstairs bedrooms. The genius military contractor installed the heating vents on the ceiling! No heat stays on the first floor and you will be forced to crack a window in the bedroom so you don’t overheat at night and wake in a puddle of sweat. If you’re acclimating for deployment, then you will love it!
6. Garage too small for anything larger than a small SUV /​sedan. If using it for storage, Be prepared for water damage! Some units have garage door openers, so you might get lucky. My house was transported to 1965 so I was not so lucky, but I get to work on my lower back injury trying to open it. Currently it remains frozen shut as we had a nice storm two weeks ago!
7. 2.5 bedrooms. I say 2.5 as the third room fits a litter box and a desk. Maybe a crib but definitely not anything bigger than a twin bed.
Well that’s all I can type here, but I think you understand!

To say that this place is an absolute nightmare is a huge understatement! If you are like us forced by no other option to move into this place PLEASE GET A LAWYER ON RETAINER! Over the past year we’ve used one 3 times! Only then will this place fix things or listen to reasoning. The units are falling apart literally! We have electrical sockets coming out of the walls, door knobs falling off, tile pealing off the floor, and the carpeting hasn’t been changed since who knows when. The only benefit to living here is it is close to post and Watertown and the price is cheap… you get what you pay for though. Unless the ceiling is falling down (that actually happened) they won’t fix it unless you fight them with ‘right to habitability’ memorize that if you sign a lease. This is where decency and understanding go to die. Overdramatic? maybe. seriously… avoid Woodcliff properties at all costs!

The management of the place is not very good. They refused to show us the units that were being rented out until we filled out the application and paid for the application fees. They showed us the model four bedroom unit when we were looking for 2 bedrooms. They said it looks the same minus the extra two rooms. The units look decent on the outside but the inside was a different story. Because most tenants have pets, the carpet was ruined and smelly. It is a very good location if you’re in the military and want to be closer to base.

I tried the internet approach to apartment hunting before moving to Ft Drum and boy was it disappointing. This place gave me the run around for weeks before arriving, giving me info, saying they had units, then didn’t, then did, then didn’t. Finally, when I was already in town looking for places, they called me and told me they had a «model» unit to show me, so I rushed over. The place was small and dingy, hardly a «model» in the sense I’m used to, meaning it should be nice, but this was the type of apartment you had in college, thin walls, small rooms and twenty coats of paint that still just don’t look right. This place has high turn-​over, but clearly doesn’t have much trouble keeping the units filled due to demand.
I know housing is tight around here, but from how they treated me and how I’ve seen them treat other people, my opinion of this place is VERY VERY LOW.