Women homeless for the holidays

Florida Keys News - Key West Citizen

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Women homeless for the holidays

By MANDY BOLEN Citizen Staff

For 80-year-old Auwina Weed, being home on Thanksgiving Day is not an option.

She is one of four tenants of 629 Caroline St. who were displaced Saturday after city officials deemed their home unsafe on Friday and ordered everyone out within 24 hours.

The Bahama Conch Community Land Trust (BCCLT) owns the property, but Weed has lived there for more than 30 years.

She knew the previous owners and took care of the property when they became too elderly to do so.

Weed has been granted a lifetime estate at the house, and before the land trust bought it, she ensured that the bills were paid and the property was maintained.

"I am an emotional basket case right now," she said Wednesday morning while staying with friends on Cudjoe Key.

Those friends need their extra bedroom back on Monday. At that time, Weed said she will see whether the Key West Housing Authority has anything available for her.

"I've had to board my cats, and who knows who is going to pay for that," she said.

BCCLT board member Bob Kelly said he has been in touch with the displaced tenants and assured them the board will do everything possible to have them back in their homes for Christmas.

"And we'll forgive their rent for the period that they are not in there," Kelly said.

He said the four female tenants may be able to stay temporarily in another BCCLT-owned property on Albury Street.

The city is auditing the BCCLT and the organization's former executive director, Norma Jean Sawyer, is under suspicion of financial mismanagement. She did not return The Citizen's phone calls seeking comment Wednesday.

The Key West City Commission will hear the final results of the audit at a Dec. 14 meeting.

The city's Building Department has issued orders for several repairs at 629 Caroline St., including a fire escape, new stairway, new roof and sturdy balcony rails and stairway railings.

Weed noted that no work was being done on the property during Wednesday morning's rain.

She was grateful to be spending Thanksgiving with friends, but had not spoken with her neighbors. Two others were staying with friends, while the fourth was staying in a hotel.

mbolen@keysnews.com

Norma Jean Sawyer's Son was Living At 629 Caroline St.

Submitted on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 7:13am

It has come to my attention that Norma Jean Sawyer's son was living in an apartment at 629 Caroline Street until he recently moved into LaBrisa Apartments, prior to the eviction notices. BCCLT updated and rennovated his apartment a few years ago. Was this a conflict of interest? Why was his apartment the only one updated and remodelled, while the rest of the house and apartments were left in such a state of disrepair?

Renter's owed Compensation.

Submitted on Fri, 11/27/2009 - 6:25am

Seems to me that BCCLT owes these women the back rent they took from them while they were living in substandard housing. BCCLT ignored maintenance on the building and still collected rent. Slum lords should be held responsible and be treated like the thieves they are. These women are homeless through no fault of their own. Shame on BCCLT and the City of Key West. One Human Family? Not if you're one of these four single women. No Compassion here.

Good luck with that. A few years back, I rented from a well

Submitted on Fri, 11/27/2009 - 3:35pm

known Key West slumlord and they were the worst of the worst. They like to think they're 'high society' but they're real dirt bags, barely operating inside the law most of the time, and sometime outside the law if they think they can get away with it. Plumbing and structure was sub-standard and even dangerous, but they refused to fix it until Code Enforcement became involved. Then they retaliated against renters. Beware of these Key West landlords. We were paying top-dollar rent and getting low-dollar value. Thank goodness we now have found a fabulous landlady.

Renters owed compensation

Submitted on Fri, 11/27/2009 - 11:18am

Interesting point. Last night I came across their bi-annual report from last year online (http://www.lybrand.net/BV/BCCLT-2008-Report.pdf). I find page 3 of the report to be particularly interesting. The hired a Mr Jim Williams as Property Maintenance Manager "to keep up with our housing stock and tenant concerns." The state of the Caroline St property would certainly suggest that he did not fulfill his job responsibilities. And what of Mr Noel Puig, who "has great experience with accounting?" And what of Norma Jean's failing funeral home that we haven't heard anything about yet? I can't help but wonder if it come into the picture anywhere? Ditto her other group, LURO Enterprises? What gets me about the Caroline St property is that Hurricane Wilma damaged the roof in 2005, and no true repairs were ever done, just tar paper patches. And now Mr Bain wants more patches? I think not! FEMA and insurance monies were received after Wilma to repair the storm damage -- where did the money go? Perhaps we'll learn about this next month when the audit comes out....

How do you know FEMA monies

Submitted on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 9:12am

How do you know FEMA monies were actually given. I KNOW that the Caroline property was THRID on the distribution that had not occurred yet. Maybe you could ask the cities FEMA director and a friend of Mr Lopez!

BCCLT - 2008-Report

Submitted on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 5:59am

Thank you for the above link to the 2008 BCCLT Report. It is interesting that BCCLT has failed to meet all five (5) goals of its own Mission and Purpose Statement, as stated on page 8 of their April 15, 2008 report. No more Federal, State or local dollars should go to this organization, until questions over what happened to previous funding and insurance dollars are answered. BCCLT Mission and Purpose 1)Provide housing for persons of low and moderate incomes. Preserve affordable housing for future generations; 2)Combat community deterioration through housing and economic development and improved safety; 3)Protect and promote an ecologically healthy environment; 4)Discover and memorialize history, culture and the architecture of Monroe County; 5)Research, discover, procure, purchase, restore and assure the preservation of buildings, land, and articles of history, culture and architecture of Monroe County.

Wait Just A Minute

Submitted on Sat, 11/28/2009 - 9:17am

NOW, why don't you and your friends take a walk through the KWHA properties. I DID! Here is a list of what I saw, missing fire alarms, missing fire exnguishers, broken windows, filthy stairways, etc., etc. Perhaps and audit of the same nature would be advised. What would happen to the residents then?

There is more to the story!

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 10:53am

Ask Ms Weed, a founding member of the BCCLT and a past BOD member, why she can't get title insurance and why the BCCLT went out and secured a loan (they did not have to) for her. Ask her about her conversation to Mr Lopez before code showed up. Ask her how much she charged the BCCLT to change a light bulb! And how much FOR the light bulb (one example) She is not the innocent old lady portrayed here. She knows darn well the WHOLE story. She is now reeping a part of what she sowed. I am sorry for the others! If one is interested, one might go ask a former board member from say 2003?

"And we'll forgive their rent for the period that they are not

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 10:14am

""And we'll forgive their rent for the period that they are not in there," Kelly said. "

How magnanimous of him. Not paying rent when they have no home?? Kelly is just a blessed angel, isn't he???

Bad News blahs!!

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 1:15am

Man, what a downer today's front page is. I wish I hadn't looked!

Thanks To the City Officials .

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 11:27am

Some of these people have been have lived there for years . They had their problems but at least they had a roof over their heads and a place to call home . The city picked a fine time to kick them out . What a shame to do this to the elderly dureing the holliday season .

The bad thing is Auwina lied

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 10:02am

She lied about keeping the hosue up with repairs when she had it. The house has been in major disrepair for decades and allowed to slip by. It should have been condemned years ago. maybe fell sorry for the women but the city is partially at fault for letting it gone on like this and Auwina is mostly to blame for not keeping the house up to standards of code.

Regrettably, the article is

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 11:58pm

Regrettably, the article is in error, as Mrs Weed has not lived there for 30 years, only about 13. And she never owned the building.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 10:00am

Instead of that insensitive comment, why can you say.... I hope that this lady and the other 3 get justice and a roof over their heads! This is why Key West and the World is the way it is! No one stops to think about others miseries, they only want to drink beer and party. Well... unless you didn't know it, America is in crisis, there are a LOT of homeless people in our community and if you had a heart, you will go to one of our homeless shelter's today, and ask if they need your help. I am ashamed to share my island home with someone as selfish as you!

I agree, the front page was terrible

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 9:17am

The front page featured Money stolen from one 102 year old woman, another homeless for Thanksgiving, a thief steals food from a church, and a headline about free rides for drunks. Is this what Key West has become?

none

Submitted on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 8:36am

City officials had all this time to do this and decided to do it right before the holidays?. Way to go. May bad karma follow you all around and get the pay back you all deserve.

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