More than five months after Mecklenburg Mills residents were abruptly kicked out of the termite-infested north Charlotte apartment building, some tenants are still looking for decent housing, still seeking answers and -- as several reiterated last week -- still troubled by the way the city has handled the fiasco.
Among their concerns: New landlords who don't make repairs, city staff who give them what later turns out to be erroneous information, and moving costs that tenants feel the city hasn't adequately reimbursed.
"We need closure, and we need people to be in safe housing, in a safe environment," former resident Kitty McCarter said at an Oct. 25 meeting of city officials and other ex-tenants. "People shouldn't have to go through what we've gone through."
"We were treated like second-class citizens," said Mollie Tillman, who is buying a condo. "There were professional people in there. [But] It doesn't matter that there were professional people; we were all people and we deserved better treatment."
On May 12, city staff summoned residents outside for an impromptu meeting where they were told to grab a week's worth of belongings and get out -- the building was in imminent danger of collapse. The 101 residents, a mix of families, working singles and some artists, had enjoyed spacious NoDa apartments at an affordable price in a city that has struggled with a dearth of reasonably priced housing for low-income working people.
Mecklenburg Mills was conceived in 1990 as an ideal way to provide such affordable housing. The city that year approved a $1 million loan to a private company to buy and rehabilitate Mecklenburg and another mill, Johnson, near North Davidson and East 36th streets, according to a city memo.
Oct. 25, neighborhood development director Stanley Watkins assured residents the city wants to give them the opportunity to move back into the mills when it is rehabilitated or redeveloped. "We do think affordable housing will be a part of redevelopment or rehabilitation of that site," Watkins said. "We would like residents to have that opportunity, if they choose to do so, to move back."
That was of little comfort to some residents. James Campbell, for instance, was collecting unemployment when the knock on his door came last May; without a job he couldn't get a lease. Now he's living in public housing. And finding a job is no easy task at 50 years of age, he said.
James Brown wanted to know what to do about his stolen car. When it disappeared, he thought it'd been towed. Because he only has liability insurance, he said, he's out of luck.
Many residents had thought police were patrolling the Mills.
Maedora Thomas, a former resident, who wasn't at the meeting, said the city hasn't adequately compensated her for lost goods and wages. Thomas said she's refused to sign the claim release form that, she worries, prohibits her from any further action -- even if she contracts an illness from having lived in the Mills. Such releases are standard, said Scott Denham, the city's risk management director.
Residents did get one thing many had been seeking: apologies.
"We are indeed sorry, and indeed, want to apologize for any inconvenience that we have caused you through this process," said Watkins. "I know it was very tough for you. It was tough for us as well ... You were not prepared for this. We were not prepared for it either."
Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess and City Councilman Anthony Foxx expressed concerns about how residents' problems have been handled. "I think that city staff needs to be more empathetic," Burgess said.
Foxx noted he had only been on the council about six months when residents were evacuated.
And at an Oct. 25 meeting with residents and city staff, he expressed concern how residents' problems have been handled. "What I've conveyed to Stanley (Watkins) is, it's just as important to me how people are treated, as what we do (is)," Foxx said. "And I don't feel like, based on what I am hearing, that you have all been treated well, at least not in all cases."
