"CITY COUNCIL WILL DISCUSS HERITAGE HOUSE AT THEIR NEXT WORK SESSION THIS MONTH... BUT NO ACTION WILL BE TAKEN."
Why have a meeting about something if you know you plan to take no action? Damage control. I don't think City Council can take any action. As a matter of fact: I know City Council can't act. The property is zoned residential. The City can't change the zoning unless over 51% of the property owners on the entire block vote to do so. Next door and taking up much of the block is a nursing home owned by the largest nursing home company in the Southeastern United States. Nursing Homes are located in residential zoning. The largest nursing home company in the Southeastern United States is not going to vote to change the zoning on their nursing home and force themselves to close one of their homes. Heritage House property owners are not going to vote themselves out. When it comes to land use, the only powers the City really has is control over zoning and taxation. And zoning requires property owners consent.
The City couldn't declare Heritage House a public nuisance because it was a public nuisance created by failures on the part of the Greensboro Police Department who had until very recently, failed to patrol Heritage House.
Everything the City did at Heritage House was a show. A very expensive and unnecessary show. From Fox8:
"The City of Greensboro says it cost an estimated $36,089 safely shut down Heritage House. The property on West Meadowview Road was condemned after the power and water were shut off due to delinquent utility bills. Moving residents out of the deplorable living conditions wasn’t easy or inexpensive but city staff say..."
They continue:
“Everything that was reported was within our budgetary allowance for the year, so there were no expenditures outside of that,” Wilson said.
Paying to close Heritage House could pay off in other ways as well. Police and firefighters responded to an average of eight calls a day at the complex, so resources will spread more evenly throughout the city now.
Wilson added that the cost to the city does not include the countless hours put in by community partners such as the Greensboro Housing Coalition."
That's interesting that Mr Wilson would mention the Greensboro Housing Coalition. You see, while I've yet to ask for records for the Housing Coalition I did get records for the Interactive Resource Center (IRC) where I found that the IRC was given over $7,000 Dollars just days before the Heritage House evacuation. I wonder how much city funding was paid out to the Greensboro Housing Coalition and other "community partners."
I'm betting the actual costs are currently two to three times the $36,089 figure quoted by Mr Wilson and it's not over.
Sources have told me that the Homeowners Association (HOA) is expecting (via the City Attorney) to put their own locks on the building tomorrow so they can start clean up and repairs. Homeowners believe (and they're correct) that as long as they continue to pay down the water and taxes the City and County can't foreclose. Once the bill is paid and the units again pass inspection people can start moving back in. With no one using any water and homeowners paying the HOA (their plan) they will pay it down in no time. Any homeowner who isn't paying the full amount gets foreclosed on by the HOA. That's the plan.
City Council got their wings clipped for being a bunch of idiots, Vestal and/or Coffey gets away with embezzlement and the small owners without the means to weather the storm get pushed out. All the big players have lawyered up but none are looking out for the little guys. Vestal and/or Coffey will get sued by the big players and settle out of court-- everybody profits except the little guys. And Heritage House goes right back to what it was before just with fewer owners and fewer owner-occupied units. City Council played right into the hands of those responsible in failing to demand a criminal investigation.
The HOA is never going to vote for the plan George and I presented at Tuesday nights City Council meeting as it blows the slum lords out of the water and the slum lords control the HOA.
But they never saw us coming.
Vestal, Coffey, the slum lords, City Council, City Staff, they never expected a band of investigators would emerge-- several whose identities they do not know-- who were computer savvy, connected and knew how to get their hands on the documents everyone wanted kept hidden. The story we present online is only part of what we know, only as much as we want to make known so that you, Dear Readers, know that someone really is working to do what your government wouldn't do for you-- protect your homes and properties from corrupt politicians and their political cronies.
You see folks, I'm not the brains behind this effort-- I never have been. I'm just another pretty face to put before the public while the real heroes fight behind the scenes.
