Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 11-13-20

Feature
Unauthorized Block Party; Misinformation Complicates Final Moves Of Tampa Park Residents
The final 4 residents in Tampa Park Apartments have relocated.
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
Tampa Park Apartment residents were informed in early February that the prop- erty was under contract to be sold and the property had to be vacated by Monday, No- vember 2, 2020. As the deadline loomed, an unau- thorized block party was held on the property on Friday, October 30, 2020, which led to vehicles being towed. Three of the vehicles towed belonged to residents.
As the final residents pre- pared to leave the complex, more than 100 individuals (mainly non-residents) gath- ered.
The property manager, Yolanda Amos, said as the crowd began to increase, extra security and the police were called to control the crowd and shut the event down.
“The cars of 3 of the resi- dents were towed because they didn’t have the required Tampa Park parking stickers on their vehicles,” she said.
Adding fuel to the flame, 2 weeks prior to the block
party, some residents re- ceived misinformation from Robin Lockett of Organize Florida, via a Zoom call, that they did not have to move until December 30th, if they submitted a form from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). According to Lock- ett, the CDC eviction ban was a valid delay to the pend- ing November 2nd date.
Mrs. Amos explained that the CDC order had noth- ing to do with the residents of Tampa Park.
“Some of the residents were upset that their infor- mation was shared with Lockett and decided not to participate, however some participated and were led to believe they had more time, when they really only had about 2 weeks left. Plus, the CDC notice referenced evic- tions. This interference led to some residents defying the November 2nd move-out date and confrontations with us, because the residents be- lieved what they were told,” she stated.
Also, some residents complained to a Tampa Bay Times reporter that they had been locked out of their apartments without their knowledge. However, Mrs. Amos discredits that infor-
Tampa Park Apartments Complex
our managers called every delinquent resident to see what was going on, and we pushed to get them financial help. However, the only as- sistance available was for residents who were affected by COVID. Only a few of the 100 were eligible for the help, and those who received it, did not pay us the delin- quent rent, but kept the funds.”
“As far as the negative press and social media at- tacks against Tampa Park’s board, me and the 52-year history of us housing low-in- come and poor people in this community, it was unjust.
“It did not help the families, it only made the process more stressful for those resi- dents who got distracted by the noise and interference.
“What it also did, was fuel hostility and volatile behav- ior towards our staff and re- sistance to the process as the end neared.
“And let me add, not one, so-called activist came to management or our Board (in the 50+ years of our exis- tence) or during this process offering any real help to these families. So I’m con- fused as to why they had so much to say.”
“Tampa Park has been in the gap for half a century. How many people of any race, have housed thousands of people, other than the Housing Authority? This is something that our Board, and my family are proud of. We respected and cared enough for our residents to give them time and financial support to help them move. How many landlords do that?
“No matter what the intent of the outsiders was, they cannot taint our legacy.”
“Our staff did an excel- lent job and persevered. They worked tirelessly and were on the forefront. We owe the completion of this difficult task to them.”
“The majority of our resi- dents loved Tampa Park and took care of their apart- ments, and their families. And at the end, the majority of the 300+ families handled their business, received the financial help provided and relocated,” she concluded.
mation saying the residents had been notified numerous times when they had to be out of their apartments.
“When we got down to the final days, we contacted everyone that was still on the property. As of October 2, there were still 130 families that had not moved. When contacted, some residents told us, ‘they would have to be put out’. However, any residents who knew there would be delays in their move-ins and requested ad- ditional time, received it.”
Mrs. Amos added, one of the residents who com- plained, had been offered 3 different sites to relocate, but refused all 3. Another single resident defied the move be- cause she wanted a 3 bed- room apartment, instead of a 1 bedroom apartment.
Tampa Park Apartments staff worked with the resi- dents for 9 months, along with the buyer, Darryl Shaw who hired Tori Boyd to help with relocation in ad- dition to providing $1,500, moving supplies and a mover. Additional help was provided by Hillsborough County thanks to outgoing County Commissioner Les Miller, who came onboard in mid-August to assist the residents in relocating.
During the final weeks, the process to receive the county funds became a lot easier when Ms. Cheryl Howell, director of Afford- able Housing of Hillsbor- ough County Housing deployed members of her staff onto the property to give the residents convenient access to receiving county help.
“This journey has been very arduous. Change is never easy, however, we could not keep putting a bandaid on all the things that needed to be done to maintain.” However, our goal was to help our res- idents receive as much help as possible to make the tran- sition. That however, became complicated when outsiders interfered, says Tampa Park Vice Chair Kay Andrews.
“What some folks fail to understand is that if we were an entity that dealt strictly with a business mindset, then the residents would have been given a 30-day no- tice to move (like most land- lords issue), instead of 9 months.
“We knew this was a his- toric and challenging deci- sion, but the struggle as a business was real.
“However we made a fi- nancial commitment to our residents, and requested the year delay in the final sale. We used the upfront monies to stay open for the 9 months to give our residents time to not only wrap their brains around the change, but mainly to give them plenty of time to find a new resi- dence.”
“The challenges of the pandemic and the fake prop- aganda was a double layer of complication we had to nav- igate. We are a non-profit, so all expenses paid, normally came from rent. When you have folks telling residents they can’t be evicted because of COVID, this ultimately led to close to 100 residents not paying rent. Many of them were up to 7 months delin- quent.”
“What was not shared was,
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