Henderson City Council member Garry Daeke reported on behalf of the council’s Community Development Committee on a tour of Beacon Light Apartments that several members of the council and City Manager Jerry Moss participated in last week.
“Frankly, I came away a changed person. I think many of us did,” Daeke told the council. He also said he “was appalled” by what he found there. He said that he very quickly got onto his cell phone to make calls to see about getting people into better housing. He called the housing “more than substandard”.
Daeke said that of the 100 units, about 60 were occupied, and some of those by young children.
The chair of the Community Development Committee also commented that the residents of Beacon Light were very gracious to have invited council members and other visitors into their homes, and he thanked them for being so accommodating.
City Manager Jerry Moss refered the council to a memo dated April 3, 2006. In it, he noted that he contacted a HUD representative and reported the conditions he observed during the tour. That memo is available on Home in Henderson under a separate headline. Moss was informed that HUD was looking to foreclose on the property. HUD also informed Moss that there was a buyer expressing interest in purchasing and renovating Beacon Light who was willing to spend $100,000 to make the apartments liveable.
Moss expressed the opinion that $100,000 was insufficient to renovate the units. He advised the council to allow HUD to foreclose.
Council member Lonnie Davis advised the council that HUD was on the Beacon Light premises on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week inspecting the property.
Moss commented that there had been no payment from HUD in four months. He further stated that the condition of the units was such that they needed to be torn down. He also told the council that it needs to make sure that once the units are foreclosed upon that they should not be occupied by the homeless or drug dealers.
Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert stated that the council needed to authorize a letter to be send to the HUD representative and everyone above him, including the Secretary of HUD, regarding the situation. He said that the council needed to do everything to get HUD to take care of the problem.
“This is ridiculous,” the mayor said.
Council member Elissa Yount added that the letter should state how the property should be maintained once the foreclosure is complete.
The motion to draft the letter passed without opposition.