THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702010297
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS AND MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 69 lines
Chesapeake Manor owner Todd Copeland has notified remaining tenants of the doomed apartment complex that they must vacate their homes by April 30.
The official notice, received by tenants Thursday, will enable the city's housing authority to place eligible Chesapeake Manor residents at the top of the waiting list for public housing.
Residents had been waiting for the other shoe to fall since Copeland began tearing down part of the 330-unit complex - one of the largest privately owned low-income developments in Norfolk. He had said notices could be sent out as early as mid-February or as late as 1999.
About 20 Chesapeake Manor tenants already have applied for public housing, said Ray Strutton, assistant executive director for housing operations for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. ``So the process has already begun,'' he said Friday.
Strutton also said he has instructed his staff to call Chesapeake Manor on Monday to set up an informational meeting for tenants.
Meanwhile, Copeland said he has assured tenants they will get $100 toward moving expenses and will have their security deposits refunded if their rent payments are current and moving-out conditions are met. He said the money probably would come within two weeks of departure. Chesapeake Manor tenants pay $285 to $295 a month.
``I want it to be as convenient as possible for them,'' said Copeland. ``We are actively trying to relocate the residents, and I'm confident that the market will absorb them.''
Copeland said Friday he did not know how many residents remain in the sprawling neighborhood near the center of Norfolk. The complex, built in 1951, used to house about 700 people.
Chesapeake Manor is the latest of several large low-income complexes to be demolished in Norfolk during the past two decades. About 3,000 private low-income units have come down in that time.
Suzanne Puryear, Norfolk's human services director, said low-income housing is inadequate, not just in Norfolk, but ``everywhere.'' Advocates for the poor predict that some of Chesapeake Manor's residents will end up homeless.
Also on Friday, City Councilman Paul R. Riddick urged the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the city's Social Services department to give special attention to tenants who are senior citizens.
Strutton said the elderly do not have special priority, ``but we'll certainly be sensitive to the needs of senior citizens and the handicapped.''
Federal regulations say that involuntarily displaced tenants move to the top of public-housing waiting lists, Strutton said, as long as they meet regular requirements.
Copeland, a Virginia Beach businessman, paid $2.59 million for the complex last May but has not said what plans he has for the property. Norfolk assesses it at $1.8 million.
The Norfolk native said he has no written agreement with anyone, including the city, for redeveloping the site once the buildings have been torn down, though he said a golf course was among the options discussed with ``different groups.''
Council member Daun Sessoms Hester wants the area developed commercially. She says she thinks Copeland wants it rebuilt with military housing.
``There are a few options on the table, but no matter what we do, it will improve the community,'' said Copeland.
Joseph Parham, 76, a 45-year resident of the neighborhood, said Friday he felt better now that he knows when he's got to get out.
``Now I know when,'' he said. ``I know now what I really got to do.'' MEMO: Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority's telephone number is
623-1111. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by TAMARA VONINSKI, The Virginian-Pilot
Residents of Chesapeake Manor talk to a friend about a week ago. The
apartments are west of Sewells Point Road and north of I-64.