ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995                   TAG: 9510250051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO CINDY  
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


HOUSE IN DISREPAIR LOSES POWER, TENANTS

Residents of the beleaguered Justice House were struck another blow Tuesday when power to the apartment building was cut off. Without electricity, the building likely will be condemned by the city of Roanoke.

Electricity was cut off last week as well but was turned on after a resident agreed to put the bill for the whole building in his name. That resident asked Appalachian Power Co. to take the bill out of his name Monday, an Apco spokeswoman said. So far, no one else has come forward to start up service again.

Without electricity, the temperature in the 20-unit building probably will drop below the 65-degree mark required for living quarters by Roanoke's city code. Building Commissioner Ron Miller said the city could post the building as condemned as early as today, forcing residents to vacate immediately.

Water to the building also was cut off Tuesday morning after Justice House founder, David Hayden, asked the city to take the bill out of his name and agreed to make payments on the $1,369 overdue. But not wanting to add to residents' misery as they look for other housing, the city turned water service back on Tuesday afternoon, city spokeswoman Michelle Bono said.

The building already is in need of $500,000 worth of repairs to bring it up to code, and no one wants to claim ownership.

If the writing is on the wall for Justice House, some residents still refuse to read it.

Many want to continue to live in the building.

Connie Ritter has lived there just a month but considers Justice House home. She lives in an apartment with three other adults and a 6-week-old.

The infant spent Monday night at the hospital, after becoming ill recently. Ritter said the baby's mother planned to bring him back to the apartment after he's released from the hospital, even though there may be no electricity to heat his formula.

"I'm not moving," Ritter said, as another tenant loaded his belongings into a U-Haul. "The only thing it needs is for people to join in together and fix it up. It's the only place the baby's got to come to."

Tenants said they paid their rent on time but that the people responsible for paying the utilities - fellow tenants - failed to do so.

Roaches are rampant in the 20 apartments, and ceilings in one third-floor apartment have collapsed, exposing holes in the roof above.

Some residents have been moving out, including the woman whom the building's 10 stray cats relied on for food. Gail Andrews and her five kids are moving into a housing project today. She worried about other tenants.

"There's people who don't want to move," she said. "Even if they could afford it, they don't want to see the place close down."

Residents said they will fight to stay in the dilapidated, roach-infested building because, to them, it's home.

"People who see it on the news, they can say all they want - they're in a comfortable home," Andrews said. "People here have got to worry about it. They don't know where they're going to sleep tonight."

Roanoke Area Ministries, the city's Department of Social Services and other agencies have helped several families find housing and provided emergency financial assistance for security deposits, utility deposits and first months' rents.

"I've been pleased with the way resources have pulled together in this situation," said Wendy Moore, RAM's executive director. "Moving is very painful. We're trying to make it as painless as possible."

Justice House began as an experiment in communal living established in 1985 by Hayden, a Mennonite pastor who preached a fiery brand of "liberation theology," contending that Jesus' message of salvation was only for the poor.


Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB