Bad living conditions, how to handle the rent

[Michael Stuck]

I am asking the following question for a family member and want to give them advice:

They are living in a poor condition older home and the AC has been broken for months and they also have water leaking in the basement to the point that they have coolers collecting the water to prevent it from soaking everything.   The catch is they are also behind in rent and have poor credit.  What can they do here?  It has been 100+ the past few weeks in Missouri.  They have been renting this place for the past 15 years and the area is expensive so Im not sure they can go somewhere else very easily.  The place needs thousands in repairs to make it what I would deem "livable" again.

[Dawn Anastasi]

This is one of those cycles -- the landlord knows there are things wrong, but doesn't fix them because of missed rent by the tenant and the tenant doesn't complain about the things not getting fixed because they know they are behind on rent.  Each party has their head in the sand.

Tenants -- get caught up on the rent!

Landlord -- fix the things that need fixing!

Go forward -- landlord keeps the place maintained and the tenants pay their rent.