ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610070088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
A dispute between the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the owner of a Richmond apartment building could put 50 tenants on the street.
A HUD official said Friday that the agency is withholding its share of the rent for 50 subsidized tenants because the apartments do not meet housing quality standards.
Carrington Gardens Apartments is a 102-unit complex in Highland Park.
``The thing that we're most concerned about is decent, safe and sanitary housing conditions,'' said Bill Miles, a senior asset manager in HUD's Richmond office.
But one of the owners of the complex said HUD's standards are too broad to enforce, and that withholding rent while the tenant remains in the apartment is improper.
Herb Zuckerman, the general partner in Carrington Gardens Associates, said if the apartments are unsafe, the remedy should be finding acceptable housing for the tenants - not withholding rent while they continue to live there.
The monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $325. Tenants in the HUD units pay varying amounts based on their income and family size. HUD pays the difference.
Zuckerman contends that most of the deficiencies cited by HUD are trivial. They include leaking faucets and batteries missing from smoke detectors, he said.
But Miles said an August inspection disclosed exposed wiring, bad floors and vermin such as roaches and mice.
After HUD said it would not pay the rent, the company notified the tenants they would be responsible for the entire amount, said Todd Copeland, president of Hercules Real Estate, which manages the complex. Zuckerman and Copeland are based in Virginia Beach.
If the money is not paid by Saturday, the company will notify the tenants on Monday that they must vacate their apartments. If they refuse, the company will seek a court order to have them evicted, Copeland said.
``We're going to be forced to move them and move in people who are paying market rents so we can pay our bills,'' Copeland said.
But Miles said such evictions would be illegal. ``The tenants are not responsible for our portion of the rent.''
The dispute has tenants nervously weighing their options.
``I can go to my mother's,'' said Vanessa Goins, 26, who has lived at Carrington Gardens for 20 months.
``They want $326 by the fifth. That's tomorrow,'' she said as her 6-month-old son sat in her lap drinking from a bottle.
Goins works as a nurse's assistant four hours a day and says she is unable to get together the money demanded by the deadline.
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