WILMINGTON — Six apartments in Wilmington Housing Authority portfolio have been at the center of concern as the city issued code violations in recent months.
READ MORE: Hillcrest redevelopment: $25M plan targets 2026 groundbreaking, funding still being procured
Tyrone Garrett, the CEO of WHA, took up the issues at the organization’s board of commissioners meeting Tuesday.
“There was an article in the newspaper last week and I just want to clarify for the commissioners the dates of those violations at New Brooklyn,” Garrett said.
Last week, WHQR first reported five apartments at New Brooklyn Homes had problems. One unit at Solomon Towers also failed to meet minimum housing standards due to a bed bug issue that’s being corrected.
Garrett — who did not return Port City Daily’s phone calls, texts or emails by press — told commissioners the properties were inspected on May 24, July 23 and Aug. 13 of this year.
Brian Renner, the city’s chief code enforcement officer, told Port City Daily Thursday the inspections were prompted by tenant complaints to the city on May 10, July 16, July 19 and Aug. 12.
As Garrett explained Tuesday, the complaints and inspections happened before Wilmington Housing Authority started managing New Brooklyn Homes in November.
Though WHA owns the property, its daily upkeep was being overseen by Excel Property Management.
Per Garrett’s depiction of the situation, WHA inherited a problem they now have to fix.
“We have to find where the bodies are actually buried, so to speak, what the management company might have left,” Garrett told commissioners.
WHA also began managing Robert R. Taylor Senior Homes and The Pointe in August, both also formerly managed by Excel. WHQR reported residents of the senior housing complex went a week without consistent and clean running water in January 2023.
Excel has a history of complaints against it for unanswered maintenance. Dozens of residents in Pender County Housing Authority’s Seven Oakes community reported mold problems going back two years at a public meeting in August. Excel’s contract with the Pender County Housing Authority ended in September and was not renewed.
WHA commissioner Betsy Kahn questioned if prior management was not on the hook for repairing the units.
“My approach is a little bit different — I don’t look back, I look ahead,” Garrett said. “Now it’s ours and we take on the responsibility.”
However, Renner confirmed Thursday that the initial notices of the code violations were sent to WHA and Taylor West LLC only. Renner said the city had direct conversations about them with Excel though and sent the company information. Port City Daily attempted to reach Excel to ask questions; it responded after press with the following statement:
“Excel Property Management was informed of several code violations earlier this year issued to WHA as of owner of the community which remains the responsibility of the owner to remediate and repair.”
While Excel could have been unresponsive to maintenance requests to the point of substandard conditions — the company has reported staffing shortages in the past — it is still ultimately the owner’s responsibility, in this case WHA, to ensure the property meets housing code requirements.
Per the city’s housing code violation procedure, an inspection that yields violations is followed by a hearing where the city can issue an order to repair or demolish the cited structure. If a property does not reach compliance by the time of a second inspection, the city can propose to condemn the property — if the repair costs exceed 50% of the property’s value — or issue a civil penalty if not.
Renner said a hearing has yet to be held on the cases, so no fines have been issued. He added some violations have been corrected, though none of the cases have been closed.
The following are details on the cases, provided by Renner:
- 1200 N. Fourth St. Unit B: No water heater (busted), no A/C, no heat
- 1318 Brooklyn Lane Unit A: Previous flood causing issues
- 1208 N. Fourth St. Unit D: Ceiling leaking over stove and causing mold, mold in the shower and the kitchen cabinets
- 1208 N. Fourth St. Unit C: Mold on bathroom ceiling and around windows
- 1216 N. Fourth St. Unit A: Concern of a mold lead under sink/leaking around shower, mildew-rain leaking around window
Some of the residents in these units have been relocated while repairs are made — something Garrett did not mention Tuesday.
Instead, he told commissioners it takes time for the WHA to assess the conditions of a property and, in the case of necessary repairs, identify a funding source to cover them. It’s unclear how much the repairs will cost.
Port City Daily attempted to reach Garrett without response, since WHQR had reported on Dec. 5 the housing authority had not completed an evaluation of the properties yet. PCD wanted to ask Garrett if one had been completed since, as well as steps involved in an evaluation.
At Tuesday’s meeting, WHA went into closed session, resulting in media leaving the room, so Garrett was unavailable to reach in person.
The WHA commissioners questioned little about the code violations and WHA’s responsibility for fixing them.
Commission Chair Jeffrey Hovis said the current predicament highlights the importance of WHA’s policy, adopted two years ago, of trying to manage all properties its residents are placed in.
“Anything we can’t control, we will attempt to take over,” Garrett said, adding it took around a year-and-a-half to gain management over New Brooklyn Homes.
The strategy of managerial control became part of WHA’s mission when Garrett became CEO in May 2022 after eight months without leadership. The authority was embroiled in a mold crisis that displaced hundreds of people, many of which were moved to hotels — a weekly expense of $6,000 per family. All displaced residents had been moved back into a WHA housing unit as of March 2023.
Garrett also called for a physical needs assessment of WHA’s eight properties, which had not been done since 2017; the assessments are typically conducted every five to seven years. It identified several upfits Garrett committed to accomplishing over the next few years.
On Tuesday, he gave updates on the work being done at Solomon Towers, Hillcrest and Houston Moore.
Solomon Towers, a complex more than 40 years old, needed updates to the building’s façade, balcony reinforcement, fresh paint on interior walls, bathroom upfits to be more amenable to seniors, cabinet replacements and infrastructure repairs, such as the elevators. Residents have remained in the complex as work has been completed on 151 units.
Garrett said the project has finished its first phase and is now in its second, mainly an environmental condition review, such as looking for mold, to ensure remediation of the structure is not needed. Garrett said he anticipates getting units back online by the end of the year.
As for the 256-unit Hillcrest, it is still awaiting demolition and reconstruction, which will cost between $20 to $25 million and happen in four phases. Each phase will involve rebuilding about 80 units, with new units added later, depending on zoning and density. As reported by PCD in August, the development is set to break ground in the first quarter of 2026.
The majority of the project is to be funded through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit; WHA announced in August it would fund the remaining $5.7 million with a grant from the New Hanover Community Endowment, though the announcement was a premature mistake.
On Tuesday, Garrett said the LIHTC application had been submitted, but the team was still determining how much of the property should be dedicated to project-based vouchers versus tenant-based vouchers. The former offers a rental assistance subsidy tied to a specific housing unit, meaning the funding stays with the unit even if the tenant moves out; the latter allows a tenant to use the voucher to rent any eligible private housing unit they choose.
Garrett said the development team wanted Hillcrest to be 100% project-based vouchers, but he would prefer them to make up only 30% of the property. Project-based vouchers tend to be more attractive to landlords because they provide more stable income and sometimes higher payments.
He added he was prepared to negotiate, hoping the two parties would reach a compromise.
Lastly, Houston Moore, with 200 new units to be built, is in the relocation phase, Garrett reported. Some residents will be moved to other units in the current complex to make way for new units to come in their stead. Though he thinks there is enough room to accomplish this, Garrett said a small number of tenants may have to be relocated offsite.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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