Tenants oppose evictions at apartment complex
GREENSBORO — Tenants of a church-affiliated housing complex allege they were evicted because some of them petitioned the manager to resign and questioned how a HUD-backed loan was spent.
The management at J.T. Hairston Memorial Apartments, owned by a nonprofit board from Shiloh Baptist Church, put out six families in December, some for failing to pay for repairs ranging from $82.09 to a broken mini-blind that cost $10.35.
In the case of a tenant and his fiancee with nine children, the apartment was padlocked, according to neighbors, and the furniture and children’s clothing put on the sidewalk.
Mary Mims, chairwoman of the nonprofit board that owns the complex, said property manager Westminster Co. followed the rules.
“I’m very comfortable with the way Westminster applies the regulations,” said Mims, a member of Shiloh Baptist Church, which built the complex in 1968 and later formed a separate nonprofit to run it. “We have HUD regulations. We have to comply with them.”
Magistrate H.L. Mebane Jr., who signed the orders of possession Nov. 25, declined to comment, saying he did not recall the cases because he had heard thousands of matters since.
Speaking generally, Mebane said subsidized housing, in which tenants pay on a sliding scale and some live rent-free, can require tenants to be evicted if they do not pay for repairs within 30 days.
“Technically, that is a breach of their lease agreement,” the magistrate said. “It is not like other types of rental housing.”
An attorney at Legal Aid agreed that those receiving Section 8 rental assistance and public housing tenants are subject to more rules than private sector tenants. But Janet McAuley Blue said federal housing rules that govern the vouchers in a housing community such as J.T. Hairston also provide greater protections to tenants.
“I would say there is a higher threshold (for evictions),” said Blue, a managing attorney in the local office. “The regulations spell out, to a certain extent, what the landlord can evict the tenant for.”
In June and again on Nov. 25, a property site manager from Westminster Co., which manages the 108-unit complex across from Smith Homes, took a series of tenants to small claims court on lease violations.
The cases taken out by manager Stephanie Ridge stated that the tenants failed to reimburse the landlord for repairs within 30 days, constituting a “serious violation of the lease agreement.”
In the case of Kia Pair of 1208-D Orchard St., the repair was a $10.35 mini-blind. Pair did not appear in court.
For Quintelle Mitchell, the damages came to $68.54, including touch-up paint and drip-pans under the stove burners. Likewise, Keoshea Gee was evicted for failure to repay $42.59 for mini-blinds and drip pans.
“Me and my kids were homeless for Christmas,” Gee, a full-time student at GTCC who has four children, said last week. “I’m homeless now, staying with friends and different family.”
When Gee tried to repay the money at Hairston’s office, she said she was told it was too late. Gee said she does not understand why she was evicted. She said she was only home at night, in time to go to bed.
LaTonya Stimpson, who has appealed her case to District Court and faces a Feb. 1 eviction, alleges the evictions are retribution for a petition the residents circulated calling for the property manager to resign, along with residents’ services coordinator Twana Chavis.
“I’m the one who drew up the petition,” said Stimpson, a single mother of four. “Not only did I sign it.”
At the management office, Ridge referred questions to Westminster’s corporate office. Senior vice president Leah Lyerly said the filing of court papers was automatic, and had nothing to do with retribution.
“They know what they owe. We file on everybody who owes,” she said. “If they owe $1, we file.”
Regional Property Manager Ron Cagno said he has not been given the petition, in which residents listed a series of grievances. For example:
l Visitors were not allowed after 10 p.m., according to residents, and their cars have been towed from the complex.
l The management is adopting a plan next month to require that tenants get photo ID cards, and announcing housekeeping inspections whether or not tenants are at home.
l A $4.7 million rehab completed in 2008 with a FHA-backed refinance loan guaranteed by HUD did not provide a playground for children.
Mims said Friday that, in general, rule changes at Hairston have been designed to help tenants in a neighborhood bordering a high-crime area at Freeman Mill Road and Florida Street.
She said basketball courts had been removed from the complex following complaints from the community’s elderly. The decision not to include a playground in the rehab was, Cagno said, a safety issue.
Mims agreed: “The older kids come in and take over. It turns into a hangout for teenagers and young adults.”
Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lorraine.ahearn@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
Photo Caption: Iris Austin (left) and her children, Dalaysha Warren, 10, and Shuron Miller, 13, find their furniture and belongings on the street Jan. 5 after the family was evicted from its Marsh Street apartment at Smith Homes.
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