PETERSBURG, Va. -- Petersburg City Councilmember Marlow Jones has issues with the way things played out with the Carriage House Apartments.
"I think they were moving too slow but most I think, it wasn’t a main priority for them," Jones said about the apartment owner's response to broken elevators that made it impossible for some residents to come and go. " “My thing is, if your check is a priority, if your Funding is a priority, then their lives are a priority."
Envolve Communities, the Alabama-based company that owns the property, had to move out and relocate more than 100 people after both of the building's elevators went down for repairs.
One of those elevators had not been operational for the past six months.
"Six months too long for a place like this," Jones said. "This place has our Senior Citizens in it, it has our disabled in it."
The company moved residents to other housing about a week after the second elevator broke.
"I applaud the company wanting to voluntarily move them out, but technically they had no other choice," Jones said. "Their Certificate of Occupancy depended on those elevators working."
In a statement sent to CBS 6 last week, Envolve Communities said “while numerous repairs have been attempted, A long-term solution has unfortunately not been achieved."
With the building now empty, Jones said he would like to see a new set of elevators installed, not more patching of the old ones. But he is also concerned with how long that process could take.
"I don’t want the temporary displacement to become permanent," he said. "This is their home. People want to come back home."
Jones said how things have played out at the Carriage House Apartments now serves a blueprint for Petersburg so it doesn’t happen again.
"Everybody that has senior citizens in it and disabled people in it, this is the blueprint and we’re coming," Jones said. "We’re coming hard and we’re coming strong cause the city don’t stand for this, we not going to stand for it.”
In its statement, the company also said it was working to complete the elevator repairs and/or replacements as quickly as possible. Wayne Covil reached out to Envolve Communities for a new statement but has not yet heard back.
Local News
Elderly, disabled neighbors forced to move over persistent elevator issues
EAT IT, VIRGINIA restaurant news and interviews
