NORFOLK, Va. — A group of displaced families in Newport News still don’t know when they can go home.
It costs the city approximately $15,000 per day-- dating back to July 1-- to temporarily house the residents of the SeaView Lofts apartment building who were told to vacate over code issues in their building.
City attorneys ordered the owner of the SeaView Lofts complex to court last week over ongoing code compliance issues with the building’s elevators, boilers and more. A judge held the owner in contempt-- meaning he'd disobeyed the order of the court. The judge also ordered the owner to reimburse the city for temporarily housing the displaced families.
David McDonald, a mediator and arbitrator, doesn’t have a personal stake in the case but said the residents who are navigating what to do next aren't powerless.
"Under [section] 55.1-1220, it does give tenants a right to take action against a landlord for breaches in the lease," McDonald said, the president of the Mediation Center of Hampton Roads.
Part of the Code of Virginia that addresses the issue reads:
4. Maintain in good and safe working order and condition all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and other facilities and appliances, including elevators, supplied or required to be supplied by him;
McDonald noted that while they are not as commonly used for landlord-tenant disputes, a mediation process could be beneficial for some of the residents of the complex moving forward as well.
Mediation is an alternative way to work through a dispute, without going through a formal and possibly-lengthy court process.
McDonald pointed to the case of 73-year-old Vernette Scarboro, a woman who doesn’t know where she’s going to live after her hotel stay with the city is finished.
"Maybe in her case -- maybe part of the solution is paying for moving costs, reimburse for rents that they had, there are things that are retroactive," he said.
Hotel stays for these displaced families have been extended until July 14, the same day as the next hearing between city attorneys and the owner.