It seems that every couple of years, the cycle begins anew. The situation at the Bon Air Apartments and Richmond Summit gets out of control with lawlessness becoming rampant and gunshots from the parking lot being heard all over Summerville or downtown.
The media gets involved and shows pictures of residents living with leaky plumbing, buckling ceilings, and rodent and insect infestations. Code enforcement shows up with a laundry list of citations and threatens to act.
Politicians then get involved and prance in front of the cameras and promise that their staff will “look into it.” The owners promise that when the tax credits are approved, they will fix everything.
“Those buildings will look brand new as soon as I get my government check,” they promise.
The owners of the Bon Air and Richmond Summit, Redwood Housing Partners, then laugh all the way to the bank knowing that all they are going to do is put a bandage on a laceration, cover it over with a coat of builder-grade paint and install a few cameras ordered from Temu.
The rest of that government check is pure profit.
We have to give Augusta Commissioner Katherine Smith Rice credit for not offering lip service; she has tried for the better part of a decade to persuade the owners of the building to step up to their responsibilities, but there is only so much one person can do.
We have confirmed that the owners of Augusta’s two most notorious apartment highrises have recently received their tax credit checks in the amounts of millions of dollars. It is now high time the community comes together and says “enough is enough.”
The residents of downtown and the Summerville area need to continue to speak as delegations at commission meetings and demand that city Code Enforcement makes it a priority to inspect those two properties once a month, if needed. Residents should call for the commission to work with the Sheriff’s office to provide whatever police presence necessary to chase the rats out of the cellar.
The community needs to demand that the owners do their part to lower the crime in those buildings by forcing tenants to stick to their rental agreement and not have five adults shacking up in a one-bedroom apartment.
This time, if Redwood reneges on their promises, the commission should have the fortitude to yank their business license.
It is time to put an end to this cycle where both the taxpayers and the needy are being preyed upon for profit.
