‘Away to Huntersville:’ Amid repairs, displaced Charlotte seniors moved again.
Betty Johnson has tried to make the best of it at the hotel she’s stayed in since being displaced on Christmas.
Johnson and her neighbors at Magnolia Senior Apartments were sent to local hotels after a busted pipe flooded the affordable housing complex on Beatties Ford Road. Johnson has juggled two jobs while adapting to life with less space, but now she will be moved again.
She is among two dozen Charlotte seniors who will be relocated to a Huntersville hotel this week as repairs continue for Magnolia Senior Apartments. It’s another step in the prolonged process that has placed an additional burden on the senior community.
“Nobody looks at the fact we are seniors,” Johnson said. “It’s not like we’re in our 30s or 40s.”
Johnson works for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and part time at a Food Lion in Charlotte. She said she was worried about getting off late and having to drive out to the new hotel.
“Now I have to come all the way to Huntersville,” she said.
The move consolidates residents who had been dispersed across several hotels in Charlotte since the closure of the 82-unit complex. It also reduces costs for the stay and allows nonprofits to better service the seniors, said Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance Ministry.
The seniors will be moved to My Place Hotel-Huntersville where the the average cost per a night will be $70, Hardison said. The hotel’s average cost is around $120 per a night, she said.
“This hotel is giving a discount for the cause,” she said. “They wanted to be a part of a solution.”
A protracted saga
Seniors pay the monthly rent they used to pay at Magnolia to Crisis Assistance Ministry for their hotel stays. Charlotte officials and private donors also have helped cover the difference for the hotel stays, Hardison said. This is planned to be the final move as the nonprofits continue to work to find housing for seniors, she said.
Champion House of Care and Be You Be Great, two nonprofits, will help move the seniors to the new location this week. Hardison said the nonprofits were hopeful some seniors would be able to move back into the 82-unit building in April.
But it will take six to eight weeks for seniors to move into first-floor apartments that had the least damage, according to Bill Bolstad, executive director of Mosaic Development Group, which owns the property.
Flooring, drywall and electrical repairs were needed for the first floor, he said. Refrigerators also need to be replaced in all units. There is not an estimate on when the building will be fully restored yet.
“The timing of receiving materials and the full repair of the overall fire system are what’s driving that timeline,” Bolstad said in an email to the Charlotte Observer.
Johnson said she paid $315 to move furniture out of her former apartment last week. She said she now has to pay over $100 per month to keep her belongings in storage.
The past few months have been worrisome but Johnson will continue her search for a new home, she said.
The building’s closure was not the fault of the residents, and the upheaval felt unfair with everyone’s lives unstable since Christmas, she said.
But living in one hotel around familiar neighbors may ease the stress for some seniors, she said.
This story was originally published April 5, 2023 at 2:18 PM.
