Little Rock officials have been granted permission by a circuit court judge to close the Willow Creek Apartments off Geyer Springs Road, and residents were given seven days to relocate.
The tenants awoke to the news Friday morning with three knocks on their door and a stapled notice.
"All tenants evicted," it read. "Beginning Friday, September 5, 2014, all utilities will be disconnected."
Residents living in the 29 occupied units at the 133-unit apartment complex, situated behind a strip mall, must be packed up and gone by 5 p.m. that day.
"I was like 'What?' I thought he was pulling my leg. I'm used to a little bit more notice than this," said Simone Myles, 53, who has lived in Apartment 5C for about nine months and was told about the closing Thursday night by the property manager.
Myles said she was upset with the short notice given. She said she's disabled with bad knees and typically relies on others to get around. With it being a holiday weekend, the seven days given to relocate is really cut in half, she said.
"Now I'm stuck. If I was told ahead of time a couple weeks ago, this would have been different. I'll be packing on Labor Day now," Myles said. "They could have given us a better warning. They could have pulled us all into a group or something and told us."
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ordered a temporary injunction on the property Wednesday afternoon. Property Manager Mark Greene was served with the order at 4:14 p.m. Thursday, 16 minutes before closing, he said.
According to city spokesman Luis Gonzalez, code enforcement officers had already cited the apartment owners with more than 250 violations. Some issues were fixed, but the "owners failed to bring [all of the] units to compliance with minimum building and housing codes," Gonzalez wrote in a news release Friday.
Greene said the property owners -- the Little Rock Group out of Houston -- own three complexes in Little Rock and have been working to get each into compliance with housing regulations. Mabelvale Village, the smallest complex with 16 units, was fixed first. The company is in the process of addressing issues at a 46-unit complex at 8501 Dreher Lane, and Willow Creek was on the to-do list.
"They didn't give us enough time" to fix the violations, Greene said.
The majority of the units at Willow Creek are vacant, some of which are boarded up. The city cited mold issues; plumbing problems; electrical violations; and structural issues such as cracked concrete floors, flooding and deteriorating walls.
A man was shot to death at the apartment complex June 14. Laron Ware, 21, died after being shot in the parking lot about 7:46 p.m. that night. Another man was injured in the shooting. The unit associated with that homicide is locked. Dozens of flies and maggots can be seen through the sliding patio door. Greene said police still have the key to the apartment, and he can't get in to clean up whatever is attracting the flies.
Other vacant units were unlocked Friday. Greene said he's had a problem with squatters. Even when he boards the doors shut, people have broken in and trashed empty units, he said.
The city cited the complex with 46 life-safety violations. Victor Turner, the assistant director of the city's Housing and Neighborhood Programs Department, said all of the life-safety issues were in vacant apartments, while some occupied units had violations that weren't life-threatening.
Lacretia Montgomery, 26, has been living at the apartment complex since April. She said she feels safe in her unit, which she said code officers have never checked, and she doesn't understand why she has to leave. The mother of three had been ordered to find a stable living environment and a job as preconditions to getting her children out of foster care.
"This is jacked up," she said as code enforcement officers walked past her Friday. "I'm in the process of getting my kids back, and this is just another setback. I got a place, and now I got to find another place. I'm back at the bottom."
Some people have already paid their rent for the month, and now must come up with a security deposit and first month's rent to relocate. The city plans to send resource specialists to the complex Tuesday to assist residents with the transition. Greene said he can offer them spots in the Little Rock Group's other two complexes.
Some tenants who have lived at Willow Creek for years have a locked-in rent of $350. Standard rent averages $500 to $600.
"Priority No. 1 will be helping tenants secure transitional accommodations," Gonzalez said. "That's the goal for the entire [next] week and we work closely with all of them to achieve this. If a few tenants need additional assistance by the end of the week, we then discuss the possibility of assistance for a hotel for a maximum of three days. That assistance is limited based on available funding. Our team would review all of those options with tenants while working with them next week."
Willow Creek at 7515 Geyer Springs Road is the second multiunit complex to be shut down by the city this year. A judge granted an injunction on the Acme Motel at 3301 W. Roosevelt Road on Aug. 6.
Greene said the owners plan to fix up Willow Creek and bring it into compliance with city codes.
Metro on 08/30/2014