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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE: Updates, resources, and context

Displaced Wilmington Housing Authority residents all returning to homes from hotels

WHQR | By Benjamin Schachtman
Published April 5, 2023 at 3:34 PM EDT
By late October, PODS storage units and dumpsters were visible everywhere in the Creekwood neighborhood.
Ben Schachtman
/
WHQR
By late October of 2021, PODS storage units and dumpsters were visible everywhere in the Creekwood neighborhood — evidence of the growing mold crisis.

At its worst, the mold crisis displaced over 150 families from their homes and revealed serious institutional failings at the Wilmington Housing Authority. Some families have been living in cramped hotel or motel rooms for a year or more.

City manager Tony Caudle delivered the news to Wilmington City Council during their Friday budget workshop after receiving a text message from the WHA board chair.

“I've just gotten a text from Jeff Hovis, who serves on the Wilmington Housing Authority, he has let me know that thanks to the wisdom and leadership of you and your colleagues on the council, 100% of the residents of WHA are now out of hotels," he said.

Hundreds of residents, including children, were displaced from the housing authority as lingering mold issues from Hurricane Florence turned into a full-blown crisis in the summer of 2021, just as the authority’s CEO Katrina Redmon stepped down.

Over the next year, the housing authority struggled to course correct. Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo appointed new members to WHA’s board, and the city — along with the county, and the New Hanover Community Endowment — provided financial support.

WHA’s new CEO Tyrone Garrett oversaw renewed efforts to get the mold crisis under control. Though the authority missed its initial goal of returning families to homes by the end of 2022, Garrett said he was confident WHA would accomplish that by the end of spring.

Garrett confirmed to WHQR, he has hit that goal.
Local
Benjamin Schachtman
Ben Schachtman is a journalist and editor with a focus on local government accountability. He began reporting for Port City Daily in the Wilmington area in 2016 and took over as managing editor there in 2018. He’s a graduate of Rutgers College and later received his MA from NYU and his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook, both in English Literature. He loves spending time with his wife and playing rock'n'roll very loudly. You can reach him at BSchachtman@whqr.org and find him on Twitter @Ben_Schachtman.
See stories by Benjamin Schachtman