SUFFOLK, Va. — The City of Suffolk is no longer paying the hotel bill for tenants of Suffolk Tower Apartments.
A resident is accused of setting the building on fire, which displaced residents three weeks ago. The landlord paid to put tenants in hotels for the first few days then city officials picked up the tab until August 3.
Now tenants are scrambling to find somewhere new to stay.
“Technically we are homeless, I don’t have a home,” said Tiffany Cake.
Over the last three weeks, Cake and her husband lived in a hotel, free of charge. But the city’s funding ended.
“I guess we are going to my mom’s house for now,” Cake said.
Cake said a lot of her neighbors from Suffolk Tower don’t have the same support.
“Some of them are older and they don’t have a lot of family here,” Cake said. “They don’t even have vehicles, so I am like, how are they even getting their things to wherever they are going?”
Fortunately, the city’s sheltering liaison Cheryl Griffin said no one is out on the street, yet.
“A lot of them have gotten into housing, boarding houses, moving in with family, that sort of thing,” Griffin said. “But there are a few that still have not been able to make any arrangements.”
She’s working with elderly and handicapped people who don’t have family to lean on.
“There are very few that we are going to leave at the hotel for another week to give us a chance to do more case management and hopefully find somewhere for them to go,” Griffin said.
Griffin said churches raised about $5,000 so far. The nonprofit STOP Incorporated is also helping with temporary housing.
“This is like an emergency so we are in full swing trying to help these people as much as we can,” said STOP Inc. staff member Gladys Baker.
Suffolk Tower remains closed with no timeline to reopen. Maintenance manager Mike Queen said there are a lot of tests to run, and he doesn’t know if tenants can ever come back.
He is encouraging tenants to get their belongings out by Friday. He said once construction does start, they can’t get inside.
Cake is worried about meeting that deadline.
“That’s securing a truck and finding someplace for it to go, on top of finding somewhere for us to go,” Cake said. “It’s a little bit of a hairy situation.”
13News Now reached out to Suffolk Tower Holdings LLC Attorney Scott Alperin for an update, but a staff member said he’s on vacation.
The building’s maintenance manager said if tenants can't get their things by Friday, crews will not throw it out, but they won’t have access to it. He also said his last day at Suffolk Tower is Friday.
If you’d like to help the tenants visit you can donate to First Baptist Church of Suffolk or reach out to sheltering liaison Cheryl Griffin at 757-304-2883.