Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509250109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHEBA WHEELER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Despite an increasing lack of money and a small staff of building inspectors, the city of Roanoke does manage to help some people who live in homes that have fallen into disrepair.
Mary Glover, who rents the main floor of a house at 634 Harrison Ave. N.W., was a tenant the city assisted. Glover's situation portrays the difficulty city housing inspectors face when they try to force landlords to bring their housing up to even the minimum standards of building maintenance codes.
Neighbors tipped off city inspectors about Glover's rat-infested, decaying home in January 1989. After checking the property, inspectors threatened to fine the owner, the Rev. Aubrey Pullen, $1,000 if he did not repair the house.
Pullen was ordered to repair ceilings, replace a rotten and sagging porch, and install adequate heating and hot running water.
Pullen promised to make all of the repairs, but the rehab process took two years, more threats and a few court appearances.
In that time, Glover did not complain about the decaying house she rented for $50 a month - not about the smoky woodstove, the rotten steps, the broken windows or the sagging floors. Cheap rent was one of the reasons why she remained in the house.
She did not worry about the indignity of heating a pan of water to take sponge baths. When ceiling plaster fell on her head while she slept, she simply brushed it aside and turned over.
"Oh no, I didn't mind, because [the landlord] always treated me real nice," she said.
After working all her life to make ends meet, after suffering through 10 surgeries, after moving from one residence to another in search of a place to call home, Mary Glover says the house at 634 Harrison Ave. N.W. is where she will live.
by CNB