THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270494
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT AND FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The folks who collect rent from the city's poor are in a dispute over their own rents.
The Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority has moved to larger offices, but the agency is still fighting over bills it may owe at its old offices.
Edmund Carrera, executive director of the housing authority, said the agency is negotiating with its former landlord, S. G. Folkes, over whether it owes back rent. Carrera said the most the agency could owe is $10,000.
``There's no animosity between the two parties,'' Carrera said. ``We're just trying to determine an amount of money, if there is an amount of money to be paid.''
But Folkes' lawyer, Gregory S. Larsen, began eviction proceedings in General District Court in September. A Sept. 28 summons asked that the housing authority be removed from its offices at 325 Volvo Parkway for ``unpaid rent and untimely rent.''
The issue was scheduled to be heard in court earlier this month but was dismissed when neither side showed up, according to officials in the clerk's office.
The housing authority, which administers more than $6 million annually in state and federal funds, moved into its new offices at 2133 Smith St. by Oct. 1.
Larsen did not return repeated phone calls. Folkes could not be reached for comment.
Carrera said the case was dismissed because the two parties decided to negotiate the rent amount in dispute.
But Walter W. Berry, chairman of the authority's board of commissioners, said the summons was an effort to evict the authority and it was dismissed primarily because the agency moved out. Carrera said the dispute came up after the agency had moved from its old offices.
Berry said that even though the eviction had been dropped, ``further legal matters'' remained in the dispute. He declined to discuss what they were but said they had been turned over to the authority's lawyers.
Carrera said the dispute began when the housing authority told Folkes it either needed more office space or would have to leave.
Carrera said Folkes agreed to let the authority break the lease. But after the housing authority moved, Carrera said, an accountant for the landlord said the agency had not been paying enough rent.
When the housing authority signed the lease agreement more than nine years ago, Carrera said, the contract included automatic increases based on the cost of living.
According to Carrera, the accountant said that rent increases during the lease had not kept pace with the cost-of-living clause.
The housing authority was paying about $40,000 a year in rent when it moved.
Carrera said the authority's lawyer, John E. Zydron, is negotiating with Folkes' attorney over what might be owed. He said he does not know when negotiations will be final.
Zydron also did not return repeated telephone calls. by CNB