Redwood Housing enlisted its senior and disabled residents to defend the company’s right to do business and wound up with a simple warning following a public hearing Tuesday.
Told they might lose their homes, several dozen residents of the Bon Air and Richmond Summit appeared in blue t-shirts with the message “We support Redwood” while the Augusta Commission considered taking action against the Seattle company’s business licenses.
A few residents appeared on a video shown at the hearing making statements such as “a thousand percent improvement” and “you can’t move into anything nicer” about the historic former hotels. The buildings have operated as Section 8 housing since the early 1980s.
Augusta commissioners called for the hearing last month citing poor conditions, prevalent crime and the company’s delays in making basic upgrades nearly four years since buying the properties.
While the Richmond Summit on Broad Street downtown has been the scene of multiple homicides, the Bon Air on Walton Way appears a greater drain on local resources. The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has responded to 342 calls to the complex this year, Chief of Staff Lewis Blanchard testified at the hearing.
There is “no apartment complex in Augusta that we respond to that often,” Blanchard said.
Redwood has otherwise readily accepted security recommendations from the sheriff’s office and volunteered to install a Flock camera to tie in with the sheriff’s network, he said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called out the Bon Air for numerous violations in a March management review. The violations included allowing ineligible residents, application errors and lead paint violations. Management was ordered to review all tenant files and submit a corrective action plan.
Representing Redwood, John R.B. “Jack” Long said Tuesday the company has added solar panels, new appliances, flooring, paint and working elevators at the properties. Remaining action items include larger projects such as air conditioning, plumbing, perimeter fencing and security cameras. He said both properties now have locking doors that require a key fob to access.
At the hearing, Long raised numerous objections to the city’s effort to cite the company, including a failure to include any information about alleged violations.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson, who represents the area of the Richmond Summit, questioned why the Bon Air now has an armed security guard while the Summit does not.
After dealing with various Redwood executives over the years, Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice said Tuesday she’d like to put Redwood on probation until Dec. 2 to ensure it completes promised renovations, but she settled giving Redwood a warning, which the commission approved 10-1 with Johnson opposed.
“You’ve showed me some rooms, the carpet. Y’all should have had that done a couple of years ago,” Rice said.
After Redwood’s hearing, the commission agreed to work with owners of the Maxwell House, another troubled complex located on Greene Street.
Commissioner Don Clark urged the landlords to dignify the “real lives involved and at stake in all of this.”
