More than a month after Tropical Storm Chantal displaced dozens of Camelot Village residents in Chapel Hill, several are still left without safe and affordable housing options as they approach a deadline to leave accommodations set up by local government.
In a bid to compel landlords and local government officials to respond to basic tenant rights, six Camelot Village residents stepped forward this week to tell their individual and collective stories. Triangle Tenant Union, in partnership with Triangle Mutual Aid, helped set up a press conference event on Wednesday so these tenants could speak to media outlets about a variety of ongoing issues, including withheld rent and security deposits, mounting application fees for new apartments, and a general state of neglect at Camelot Village, which has seen increasingly destructive incidences of catastrophic flooding.
Despite invites sent to Mayor Jess Anderson and every town council member, only one local government representative, Jamezetta Bedford, the chairwoman of the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, was in attendance. However, the event was attended and reported on by several local news outlets, including NC Newsline, the News & Observer, and Chapelboro/The Hill.
“If You Say No to the Process, You are Put Out on the Street.”
Heather Gibbs is one of multiple tenants who have not seen their July rent pro-rated for the amount of time it has been uninhabitable. She has already spent more than $300 in application fees searching for new housing. “What we have received from Red Cross – that’s been burned up almost instantaneously because of application fees and getting basic necessity items,” she said.
Heather had been at Camelot Village since April through use of her Section 8 housing vouchers. “Camelot was the only affordable housing that I was able to be placed in. I was not made aware of the flooding situation until the time of signing my lease and at that point I could not back out because of how the system works with people that are on county funding. If you say no to something in the process, then you are put out on the street.”
The challenges of the voucher system have delayed Heather’s ability to move on from temporary housing. “One complex that I applied at wasn’t passing the inspections and they weren’t getting the apartment ready. So then I applied at another place and I’m in the waiting process again, waiting for paperwork and waiting for inspection.” These same fees that have absorbed much of the meager assistance are non-refundable even when it’s the landlord who won’t pass inspection for voucher-users.
Jessica Tickles lived at Camelot Village for seven months and has already seen two floods impact her housing. “I’m still fighting my landlord to give me my deposit back. A lot of places are not giving deposits back.” Discussing her options, Jessica said that she was in danger of being unhoused when Chapel Hill and Orange County’s housing assistance expires. “I haven’t found any place that I can afford. I had to take off work to find housing. I’m restarting back to work and it’s like starting from zero again.” Jessica noted that the situation is also un-navigable for people who need affordable housing, but who haven’t been enrolled in a Section 8 program.
Joyce Lester has been at Camelot for nearly five years and has seen three flooding incidents. “Most of the places” she’s been able to look at “want three times or four times the rent” that she was paying already.
“Without my neighbors, I wouldn’t have made it out.”
Faced with the sudden rise of Bolin Creek’s floodwaters, several residents were helped to safety by their neighbors, including Joyce and Heather. Heather relies on a mobility aid and was assisted by neighbors who knew she would need help. “They went around three or four other places where they knew other people” that could not have escaped on their own. “I would not have made it out had they not come in. There was nobody else there.”
Dale Weldele stressed how the situation became dangerous within twenty minutes. “If it wasn’t for the neighbors who were able to rescue me, I wouldn’t have made it out….My prosthetic came off in the current…By the grace of God, I made it there. [But I] lost everything. I’m starting all over.” Dale is now also facing mounting application fees in search for an apartment that can accommodate his needs.
Quinten Simmons has been there more than eight years and has seen multiple floods. He found himself in a precarious situation as a wheelchair user. “I was actually in the water,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the fire department and my friend keeping me alive, I would have died in that apartment.” Discussing the continual flooding issues, Quentin said, “That place is a death trap.”
“It’s Going to Happen Again”
Camilla Hackney has seen three floods in three and a half years. After the first flood, she said Camelot’s landlords and property managers “did nothing about it.” After a second flood, “They tore all our walls out and we still had to live inside. They tore out our toilets.” Camelot’s disposal methods also threw out many of her important family belongings.
“This was really hard to go through,” Camilla said. “This was the worst one. And they’re just going to keep rebuilding there. It’s going to happen again.”
Quenten also stressed the cyclical nature of the floods. “I’m not going back there,” he insisted. “I can’t go back there.”
“With People’s Help, Good Days Ahead”
Amid the devastation, some of the residents are emphasizing gratitude toward community members who have provided assistance with food and mucking out flooded residences.
“I just want to thank people in the organizations for the help they’ve given us, but we still have a long way to go. This experience was terrifying. I’m 62 years old and I’ve lost everything. But good days ahead with people’s help.”
“We have supported each other through this.” Joyce said. “We have come together.”
Community support and tenant solidarity have been vital in getting concessions from many of the landlords who own condominiums in Camelot Village. Triangle Tenant Union and organized tenants across the state continue to call on landlord holdouts to return to tenants what is rightfully theirs: the rent and deposits that are necessary to move forward from this traumatic event. Any tenant who has found a safer alternative to Camelot Village should not be locked into a lease agreement and should be provided with relocation assistance.
We also call on the Town of Chapel Hill and Orange County to acknowledge that these residents have not been given enough time to navigate a hostile housing market. Local government should extend financial assistance for temporary accommodations.