First of Latitude Five25 residents displaced on Christmas Day find new homes

When Ann Barrett dialed 911 on Christmas Day because the elevator to her 12th floor Columbus apartment was broken, she never imagined what would happen next.

For nearly two years, Barrett, 57, had been living in one of two Latitude Five25 apartment towers on the Near East Side. Those years were punctuated by a lack of heat and air in her unit, no hot water, power outages, the constant breakdown of elevators in the buildings and rats, roaches and other troubles.

“That place was a living hell hole,” said Barrett, who like many of the other residents of the 400-unit towers, has been living out of hotels and emergency shelters since Christmas. Even before the holiday, Barrett had been staying with her son for a few days because the heat was out in the complex and temperatures were hovering below zero.

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After her 911 call, the city deemed the buildings unsafe due to cold temperatures and bursting pipes that caused extensive water damage and other problems. The people living in the 154 units that were occupied on Christmas Day were sent to Dodge Park Community Center for shelter before being relocated to area hotels on the county and city’s dime.

While Barrett never envisioned turning 57 years old earlier this month while living in a hotel room with her husband, Anthony, there was an extra special reason to celebrate: she received keys to a brand-new apartment to call their own on her birthday: Jan. 18.

One of the first former Latitude Five25 residents to find a new permanent place to live, Barrett is moving into Bretton Woods, a National Church Residences complex for seniors on the city’s Northeast Side that opened on Dec. 9.

She’s happy about her new home, the first newly built place she’s ever lived in.

“I never in my life had a brand-new apartment that nobody ever lived in, and God blessed me with this apartment on my birthday,” she said. “I plan on being here until the Lord takes me home.”

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But she and other former Latitude residents are still in limbo.

Many of her belongings are locked inside her old apartment. Residents were evacuated and then had been allowed back in to get some of their belongings a few times at the end of December and earlier this month. But as of Jan. 11, they were locked out again because of asbestos being disturbed by a contractor, said Hannah Jones, deputy director of Community Development with the city of Columbus. Many residents fear they've lost everything due to contamination and water damage.

Barrett left her apartment on Christmas Day with only the clothes she had on, and has been wearing clothes donated to her while she lives in the hotel. Churches and other charitable groups had donated items to the former residents but the groups say they still need donations of everything from clothing to furniture to help get the former Latitude residents back on their feet.

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On a recent afternoon, Barrett visited her new, empty apartment and began to imagine how she would furnish it. For example, she'd recently bought a $1,000 bed for her residence at Latitude and it's unclear if, when and how she can retrieve it.

Barrett has been on disability for more than 20 years since a tow truck hit her car when she was living in Florida and she's had six knee surgeries since then. More recently, she was on a ventilator for six months after getting COVID in spring 2020 and has been experiencing long-term effects, including having to be on oxygen and kidney failure requiring dialysis.

Long before Latitude Five25 was deemed unsafe, Barrett had grown tired of all the issues with the property and had looked for a new place to live, but hadn't had any luck.

Graham Bowman, a Legal Aid Society of Columbus lawyer who is representing approximately 80 tenants in the building, began talking to tenants after a power outage in June. He said he'd thought something like the evacuation might happen because so many of the building systems in the towers were failing and there were other issues with the property.

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Over the years, there had been thousands of calls to police and code enforcement with complaints about shootings, overdoses, fights, unsafe and unsanitary conditions, insect infestations and failure to respond to maintenance requests, among other things.

The city of Columbus had been taking actions against the towers' owners since February 2022, with City Attorney Zach Klein acknowledging then that residents had already "suffered too long."

The owner, Paxe Latitude LP, of Lakewood, N.J., made an agreement with the City Attorney's office to sell the property and close by Tuesday, but first to restore elevator service, heat and hot water to the complex by Sunday.

A compliance hearing for repairs to address various health, sanitation and safety violations at the towers has been set for Feb. 13.

Residents who were able to leave the towers before Christmas did, Bowman said.

"These were people that didn't have the resources to leave, which is what is so upsetting — the most vulnerable were still there," Bowman said.

The city and county have contributed a total of approximately $934,000, to house the displaced residents for three months at two area hotels and to provide them with food, transportation and other support while there, Jones said.

The city also gave about $765,000 to the Tony R. Wells Foundation to hire R.H. Brown & Company, LLC., a relocation services company, to work with former Latitude Five25 residents to find them new places, Jones said. The money will also help residents pay a security deposit and cover the gap between their rent at a new place and what it was at Latitude Five25 for the first six months of their lease, Jones said.

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R.H. Brown is working with every lease holder it was able to get ahold of on the rent roll, but others who have not connected can call 614-421-6333.

As of Jan. 19, R.H. Brown had interviewed 90 former residents and identified 23 apartments available to relocate some of them with the first move-in dates slated for Feb. 1, Jones said.

Barrett, who is included in that number, is hopeful about her new apartment. It has more security and she has come to know some of the other residents from Latitude Five25 who will be moving in as they live near each other and share meals at the hotel.

“I never knew 'em before this happened,” she said of her former neighbors. “I got to know them through Dodge Park and the hotel. Everybody is trying to stay close together.”

Despite the constant difficulties that came with living at Latitude Five25, Barrett said she feels blessed.

“We get a better home,” she said. “I been through a whole lot. … And I’m still standing strong.”

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@DanaeKing

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Evacuated on Christmas: Latitude Five25 residents begin to resettle