TAMPA, Fla. - Nearly 200 residents at Tampa Park Apartments will be forced to move into other Section 8 housing after the complex failed its fourth inspection in four years.
About 170 residents at the East Scott Street homes will be relocated within the next month.
“Am I going to be somewhere safe next month? I don’t know,” said Jasmine DeLeon.
DeLeon was told she has six weeks before she, her daughter and dozens of their neighbors will be moved out of their subsidized housing located between downtown Tampa and Ybor City.
“That’s too soon. We all have families,” said DeLeon. “We have other things that have to be worried about.”
Residents have long complained about insects, mice, mold and a general state of disrepair.
As a result, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development informed Tampa Park that it’s no longer eligible for federal subsidies, which means residents who receive federal assistance have to be relocated.
“I don’t know where to start, because I don’t know yet,” said DeLeon. “I don’t know if I’m gonna get section 8 or if I’m gonna get house. I don’t know where I’m going, period.”
Some have insinuated that the property's nonprofit owner, the Lily White Security Benefit Association, intentionally allowed conditions to deteriorate because the 23 acres it sits on would be a potential location for a new Tampa Bay Rays ball park, or at least be in very close proximity to the team’s chosen footprint in Ybor City. They believe the area could of be rezoned and redeveloped for restaurants, bars and higher-end apartments.
F. Malcom Cunningham, an attorney representing the nonprofit, says the complex has been working to fix problems pointed out by inspectors.
He says the failing grades from HUD are retaliation for a lawsuit that Tampa Park Apartments filed against HUD in 2014, accusing the federal agency of not properly managing an account to pay off construction loans.
The case is still tied up in federal court.
“I don’t know who’s trying to get the property or what they’re thinking," said Yolanda Amos, Tampa Park's property manager. "But the owners care about the people here.”
Residents living in another section of Tampa Park Apartments will not be relocated. Although that part of the complex also failed a HUD inspection in 2015, records show it passed inspection the following two years.
This is the latest in a series of relocations out of public housing into properties farther outside Tampa’s city core, and often - farther from their jobs.
As for those 171 apartments, the complex says they're accepting applications from those who don't require subsidized housing.
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