JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As residents at Eureka Gardens scramble to avoid receiving eviction notices, the owner of the troubled complex responded Friday to questions about his plans for the future of the apartment management team.
Residents have received warnings over the last few days that they have 10 days to get their apartments in shape to pass an inspection or they could face eviction. Then they received another notice extending the deadline to Nov. 30.
The second letter said residents are required to do a number of things, like put light bulbs in all the fixtures, remove obstructions from the stairways, keep their apartments clean and have working smoke detectors.
But U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials said it is the landlord's responsibility to install and maintain smoke detectors.
READ: Resident's eviction warning | Deadline extended notice
MORE: Complete coverage of Eureka Gardens investigation
According to residents, the apartments receiving the warnings are those that city code inspectors entered 21 days ago during a two-day sweep where they found gas leaks, mold and crumbling stairways, which Eureka Gardens owners have yet to fix. Inspectors found 163 units with violations, out of the 165 units they entered.
The Rev. Richard Hamlet with Global Ministries Foundation, who owns the property and five others in Jacksonville, said via email Friday that "the corrective work is in progress."
He said his organization received the city's report on the inspections on Oct. 14.
"We have had over two weeks now to work on this," Hamlet wrote. "Much has been done, work continues. I anticipate that by the middle of November all interior deficiency items will have been corrected. Our standard is housing quality. I will not tolerate any health and safety deficiencies on properties... all for the betterment of the property and for the residents whom we serve."
HUD officials said last week that they do not feel like Hamlet's company is working fast enough to make repairs. News4Jax investigators have not seen any major repairs in their weeks at the property and none have been reported by tenants.
The fire marshal said three buildings out of 40 now have mandated carbon monoxide detectors installed.
After an incident this week involving a gas leak that a fire marshal source told News4Jax was not only potentially disastrous but also "vindictive" and "passive aggressive" on the part of property management, local leaders and residents called for the management company to be replaced.
HUD officials have said that they are also investigating the property management group at Eureka Gardens and that it "needs to be restructured."
When asked if he planned to fire or replace the property management firm, Hamlet responded:
"We are always reviewing the results of our property management firms we engage to conduct the day to day operating activities of our housing assets. We have stringent Asset management procedures with our large owner oversight staff in the area of compliance review, operational review, etc."
In the meantime, residents are struggling to deal with the notices management has left, threatening possible eviction.
Bresha Roberts received a notice saying that her walls were "not in a sanitary condition (and) need to be cleaned." The notice gave her 10 days to clean the walls or face "possible termination of (her) lease."
"They can't evict me for dirty walls. Come on now, no, they can't evict me for dirty walls," Roberts said. "They know they are wrong, so they are trying to put the people out who are causing a problem with their dirty apartments."
Dwan Wilson said she's furious that she's being pressured to take action, when Eureka Gardens managers haven't addressed the health and safety concerns that the city and HUD have raised.
"We're paying tenants," Wilson said. "Just because we live in a high-crime area, it doesn't mean that everyone is ignorant or oblivious to what's going on. This is wrong. This would be wrong if we lived in a suburban area. We are paying tenants who care for our children."
Management would only tell News4Jax that the inspections of the apartments will occur each and every day at different apartments through Nov. 30.
Resident Johnnetha Browlee said in light of everything that's happened, the letters from management are harassing.
"They're pretty much trying to intimidate all of these residents," Browlee said. "(They're saying) 'I have you. Your name is on a list. I'm going to kick you out.'"
Browlee said many residents are considering moving out, but without the income and resources to move, they'll have a tough time trying to survive outside of public housing.
"Honestly, this is some people's last resort," Roberts said. "A lot of people have nowhere else to go."
Hamlet said he will be in Jacksonville next week and promised to sit down to answer questions, but so far he has not given a day or time for the interview.