Some Collinsville residents raised concerns at the Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting about what they call Halifax Drive apartments.
Among those to address the board at its Tuesday, July 23 meeting was Donald Gilbert, who lives on Halifax Drive, and reported the problems in the apartment complex and conditions that renters live in have been ongoing for more than 25 years.
The issue was initially broached with the county in 2008, Gilbert said.
“It’s been 16 years and very little improvements have been done. We had to get the state and the county to come in to get the driveway fixed it. I mean it was ditches four feet deep and the rescue squad got stuck in it,” he said.
“There’s children living in these apartments, and the conditions these apartments are in, us as citizens of the road have concerns for the children and their welfare of living there in these deplorable conditions,” he said. “These things are deplorable, they’re not even fit for an animal to live in. They’re so run down and so out of place.”
A ditch runs under the road at the end of a nearby property, near the first turn-in to the complex, Gilbert said.
The ditch fills up “and washes into part of my yard, and the neighbor’s yard, and VDOT’s (Virginia Department of Transportation) had to come out there two or three times and get dump truck loads of stuff out of these people’s yards and out of in front of my house from where the place isn’t just kept up,” he said.
Gilbert said the condition of the apartment complex is lowering the property values of the neighboring homes down and keeping others from moving into the neighborhood.
“This is one of the worst places I’ve seen in the county,” he said. “If we as citizens and the county can show that they’re fixing them up and all, maybe these people can get a step up in life. It’d make them feel better, at least they got somewhere they can live that ain’t got rats and roaches and bats and all this stuff, big holes in the roofs, water running through them,” he said.
Gilbert said Henry County Sheriff Wayne Davis has helped the community a lot and has been doing good work to help calm down the criminal aspect of the apartments, “but we need help from the county to try and see if we can pressure the landowner, the apartment owner, to fix them up,” he said.
Rick Anderson, who lives nearby on Cherward Street, said he had a petition with 45 signatures of those who live in the general area and want something to be done.
In about the past 15 years, Anderson said there’s been approximately 2,100 calls to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office for everything from shootings, stabbings, and domestic violence situations.
“We actually have a lady that lives directly across from the apartments that actually had a shotgun pulled on her,” he said. “There have been dead bodies found in these apartments that probably was in there a week or two.”
Because he lives close to the complex, Anderson said he deals with the effects of upkeep, including vermin.
“I’ve actually killed 25 rats in just a year. Several of the neighbors that live in the area are having problems with cockroaches,” he said.
Anderson said he believes residents need help, and the board needs to step up, if possible.
Joe Bryant, vice-chairman and of the Collinsville District, said he inherited the issue when he came on the board and has been working on it since.
“It hasn’t been easy. We started off on this apartment complex as a drug blight area. Knock on wood, since Sheriff Davis took over, that has dropped considerably. They dropped so much now that we really can’t make that a drug blight area anymore because of what Sheriff Davis and his officers have done,” he said.
Bryant said he also discussed other options with County Attorney George Lyle.
“Unsafe structure was the next thing,” he said.
Bryant noted that some units are vacant – those with unsafe holes in the roof. Firewalls were built in-between units.
“The building inspector went out and inspected the apartments and said that the apartments were not considered as an unsafe structure. Even though the appearance might be terrible, it’s not considered as an unsafe structure,” Bryant said, adding that he also considered a nuisance ordinance based on health issues of people getting sick, diseases, and the like.
“But the health department says, ‘you have to bring us evidence of people that are having issues’ like cancer, rashes, all kinds of sorts of things that they’re getting from the apartments,” he said.
Bryant said the county can’t get into the apartments to inspect them, nor will every tenant allow them into each individual apartment.
Lyle said the county has a small toolbox to address these issues.
“As far as the physical nature of the structure, the way the Code of Virginia is set up, this county designates a building official and it’s that person’s duty to be trained and licensed, and authorized enforce building regulations.”
Some offered photos of and around the complex, which Lyle noted were shown to the building official. Additionally, “he’s inspected the property to the fullest he legally can from the exterior, and he has said they are not unsafe structures. They do not meet the definition of unsafe structure,” Lyle said.
With the drug blight, Lyle said Davis told him he does not have evidence of illegal drug sales or use on the property that would sustain a drug blight further proceeding.
Davis said he met with the owner “to tell him to do these things to alleviate the drug blight. Unlike with Villa Heights where that owner refused to do anything, he didn’t resist, so ultimately, we were able to tear down the drug blight there.
The owner “denied there was drug blights, that he would take some of the measures that were in those letters,” Davis said. “Ultimately, if we want to proceed further, we have to show there’s drug activity. We have to link some of the issues and behaviors to drug activity, and there’s no evidence to do that.”
In the past 10 years, Davis said there has been 778 calls for service either at the apartment complex or from its neighbors calling about issues relating to the apartments.
One unique thing about the complex, Davis said, is that despite the number of calls, there’s constant turnover of residents.
“They’re constantly turning over. People there this week may not be there next month. So, that’s what’s unique about the apartment complex, it appears to” have “a constant stream of people who generate 911 calls,” he said.
In a three-year period, Davis said there were 379 calls for service there.
“I ran those numbers for the past 12 months from the date, and 12 months ago 202 calls for service. What’s interesting about that is half of those were self-initiating proactive policing calls where we initiate it ourselves. In fact, we’ve not had a call for a criminal matter at the Halifax apartments since June 1, and that was a shots fired call,” he said.
Since June 1, Davis said there have been nearly 30 documented proactive policing encounters at the apartment.
“It’s because of those proactive policing encounters (that) we’re not receiving 911 calls. With that being said, we’re spending a tremendous amount of time in the area focusing on Halifax apartments to try and prevent criminal activity. We’ve been successful, but we have other areas of the county we have to focus on as well,” Davis said, adding that many of the calls received over the past 10 years have been serious including overdose deaths, shootings, and even a relatively recent stabbing.
“Halifax is a problem that we from the sheriff’s office” will “continue to work on with the assets we have available to us,” he said. “Halifax Drive is a nice community, the people maintain the properties, they keep them up. It’s a short street, except for the apartment complex,” he said.
For the nuisance ordinance, Lyle said the health director would want to want to see a linkage between the building conditions and health issues. Lyle added that he would like to meet with some residents in the neighborhood to discuss potential private options.
Garrett Dillard, of the Iriswood District, asked if the county could look at some incentive programs, like grants or taxes, to encourage people to tear buildings like the apartment complex down.
“Would it be possible, it may have been done I don’t know, to get … everybody together in a room together, sit down, and have a conversation because sometimes that personal touch” is needed, he said.
Debra Buchanan, of the Horsepasture District, said she doesn’t think anyone could disregard that the apartment complex is an eyesore.
“I know that Mr. Bryant over the years has definitely talked with different members about the about the problem through administration to try to get something done,” she said, adding the board won’t stop trying to address the issue.
“Please rest assured that you’re not forgotten. It’s just a matter of going through the proper legal channels in order to get something done, if we can get something done,” she said.
In other matters, the board:
Travis Pruitt, of the Ridgeway District, did not attend the meeting.
