City of Roswell needs help finding new housing for seniors, disabled people after building condemned
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The city of Roswell and the Housing Authority need help in finding new homes for more than a dozen senior and disabled residents of one apartment building. They have just over a month to move out after the building was condemned.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach talked to Sheila Richards, who has lived at the Pelfrey Pines complex for 20 years.
“Where am I going to go, am I going to have to live in a storage locker?” Richards asked.
She’s had trouble finding a new place to accept her Section 8 Housing voucher.
“The two places that they sent me were smaller than this, and one was absolutely filthy,” Richards said.
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Walking the property, Gehlbach spotted cracks in the walls, columns and temporary support structures in place to hold up walkway.
“We’re marching toward eminent failure,” the housing authority’s board chair, Karen Parrish, said. Parrish said engineers opened up five brick columns to find two didn’t have any steel supports inside.
“It’s a disaster for us to allow people to stay here when we know the reality of this building,” said Councilmember Lee Hills.
Hills and newly elected leaders in Roswell, including Mayor Kurt Wilson, say they made the tough choice to shut down the building, but are committed to finding funding going forward and to rebuild on the site.
“Previous administrations have known and haven’t done anything about it and we’re going to do something about it,” Hills said.
The city and the Roswell Housing Authority say they’ve already been able to help relocate more than half of the 33 residents who are still renting, but need the public’s assistance for the remaining 15.
“Anyone within our community with contacts with someone that might have an opportunity, a place for us to vet, to look, we’ll do the homework, if you give us the lead,” Hills said.
The Housing Authority said current staff is working non-stop and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development recently hired more relocation specialists to work full time assisting residents in securing housing. RHA learned Wednesday morning, after reaching out to Senator Jon Ossoff’s office, that they’ll be getting help with covering some transportation and relocation costs.
“We’re trying to work as best we can to keep this building stable as long as we can so we can find appropriate housing,” said Parrish.
The residents were giving till the end of August to be out of the property. But they will get first chance to move back once a new apartment is constructed. The goal is to reopen a new and safer building by the end of 2024.
“I don’t want to leave Roswell but have to do what I got to do,” said current renter Francis Boswell. “Once they build this back, we can come back and I hope that’s possible.”
Anyone who can help, or provide assistance, is urged to call the Roswell Housing Authority at 770-993-6226.
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