The Shreveport City Council allocated funds to cover the cost of demolitions for five abandoned apartment complexes.
A proposal to add $80,000 from the city’s General Fund to the Property Standards budget to cover the costs of approved demolitions at the Villa Norte, Forest Oak, Kings Manor, Pines and Silver Lake apartments was approved at Tuesday’s meeting.
The city received bids for the projects on June 6 and funds will be transferred from the Operation Reserve.
The planned demolition of various complexes, including Villa Norte and Pines, comes after a prolonged dispute between the city and property owners. The two apartment buildings had their water and electrical services disconnected in May due to unpaid bills.
A state of emergency was declared at Villa Norte and Pines apartments after squatters, scavengers, and vandals occupied and damaged the properties, even though many tenants had relocated with the help of local government and non-profit assistance.
Shreveport citizen Kenny Gordon endorsed the idea of refurbishing Pines Apartment rather than tearing it down.
“I’ve had my property fixed or renovated, whichever word you wanna use and it’s in immaculate condition,” Gordon said. “Those apartments can be done the same way. I was talking to a reporter out there and that reporter told me that they wanted to charge $800,000 to demolish this place. That money can be taken and refurbished the apartments. It can be done.”
“You can fix that property back and fix it back in immaculate condition so that people will have a place to live. The Pines have been there for a long time, I remember it when I was a little kid and it would a travesty to tear that property down when it could be refurbished.”
Council Chair Steven Jackson said he believed that the Pines complex is capable of being saved. However, the property is not owned by the city, and the issue at hand lies with the owner.
“This wasn’t the only property he owned,” Jackson said. “It was a slumlord… I have to be careful with what I say. This is a slumlord we’re trying to hold to the fullest extent that we can to honor his agreement to the City of Shreveport and that has been extremely difficult. If we do not tear it down, it sits vacant until that owner decides to sell it and we cannot force that process. The only power the city has is to deem it uninhabitable and to tear it down so I’m open to all other solutions that says we have other options than tearing it down but we can’t invest taxpayers dollars into a property that we do not own to fix.”
Councilman Grayson Boucher confirmed that a section of the Pines apartments damaged by a recent fire will be torn down. Boucher said he agreed with renovating the Pines complex, but proposed demolishing sections that are in disrepair and look into revitalization options.
Follow Ian Robinson on Twitter @_irobinson and on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3vln0w1.
