It was supposed to be moving day, but Lake Arbor tenants remain confused, frustrated
Kenneth Brooks only had a few items left in his apartment: a Panthers pennant, kitchen odds and ends, his tomato plants still on the patio.
Most everything else was packed and gone by Saturday morning, the day that Brooks thought he needed to leave his Lake Arbor apartment.
Or maybe it wasn’t.
The 58-year-old Air Force veteran, who was homeless for a time before moving to the west Charlotte complex six years ago, initially was told he had to leave by Aug. 31, in a letter apartment management sent to tenants in late July. Then, a letter dated Friday gave a new date to be out: Sept. 30.
Tenants of the complex off of Tuckaseegee Road expressed dissatisfaction at the communication to residents and the promised help with relocation. After management announced its plans to remove all residents and renovate the apartments following repeated code violations for faulty wiring, pests and water damage, many low-income, disabled and elderly tenants have struggled to find new places to live.
“I’m by myself. I can handle me,” Brooks said. “My concern is the families, especially the ones with little ones and the school-age kids. They’re the ones who will have the issues. To kick someone out when school is starting back up? That’s ridiculous to me.”
Brooks said he had already begun moving his belongings to his new apartment in Mint Hill, and still planned to return his keys when the office reopened after the Labor Day weekend. While he said he hadn’t experienced some of the more extreme maintenance problems other tenants have, he was ready to leave Lake Arbor behind.
“I’ll give them the keys and hopefully they’ll give me my deposit back like they promised,” he said. “When someone kicks you out you don’t feel nothing for them.”
Displacement at Lake Arbor, where management intends to remove all tenants by the end of the year, is the latest example of Charlotte’s growing affordable housing crisis.
Over the rumble of moving vans and the tinny jingle from the truck selling slushies, organizers with Action NC and a team of volunteers went door-to-door Saturday, informing tenants of their legal rights and encouraging them not to leave their apartments unless they had somewhere stable to go.
“Have you spoken to an attorney yet?” organizer Jessica Moreno asked over and over.
They encouraged people not sign any incentive packages offered that might prevent them from taking legal action against the owners until they’d consulted an attorney. Tenants with questions are encouraged to call the free legal advice hotline at 919-856-2169.
“My worry is people leave and have nowhere to go,” Moreno said as volunteers walked the grounds.
Eric Johnson, 49, has yet to find a place big enough for his five children that is close to their schools.
“Anger,” he said of his reaction to the latest letter. “Because nobody has tried to get in touch with us to make provisions for us to get out....Everybody I talk to wants to leave, but they want help to move some place else.“
Several tenants told the Observer they were frustrated they hadn’t heard back from the coalition of nonprofits tasked with assessing their needs. The groups announced recently at least $350,000 is needed to relocate residents. Representatives from that group said they will begin distributing relocation assistance next week.
“We’ll meet one-on-one with tenants who requested our help to see what resources they need, including housing,” Harold Rice, chief operating officer for Community Link, said in an email Friday. “We’ll work to place clients in new housing in Charlotte and outlying areas starting next week.”
Additional tenant assessments will be 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday for the next two weeks at the Community Link office, 601 E. 5th St., suite 220. Call 704-367-2771 or 704-943-9490 for more information.
This work was made possible in part by grant funding from Report for America/GroundTruth Project and the Foundation For The Carolinas.
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