The future for renters at an affordable housing complex in East Nashville continues to hang in the balance.
The new owner of the Riverchase apartments gave residents until the end of June to find a new home. The owner has paid for housing navigators to help meet the deadline.
But the last few families say they are still facing hurdles trying to find a new home.
Christina Presley says an employee with the property management company Freeman Webb gave her two options: “To get our stuff and get set out, and then move at the best way we know how,” she says. “Or take the deal, which the regional manager, Ken, is paying for our hotel for a month. So we’re not on the streets.”
Both options fall under the federal government’s definition of homelessness. Plus, Presley says, that’s not what residents were promised. The Texas-based owner CREA committed to covering moving costs and put money toward new housing.
Freeman Webb manages the property for the developer. CREA says they never instructed Freeman Webb to give Presley that information.
In a statement to WPLN, Freeman Webb, says their offer to house Presley was taken out of context.
“One of our maintenance staff knocked on their door to verify if the apartment was vacant because that resident has had very little to no contact with Salvation Army or Freeman Webb since the beginning of our relocation efforts,” a company representative said in an email.
Freeman Webb says they helped the Presley family get a hotel at their request and are “still working with them to find permanent housing.”
Both Freeman Webb and CREA say Presley will also be given the option to return once the new property is built.
Presley has previously experienced homelessness and worries about the logistical hurdles of moving her things into storage while looking for an apartment.
The new owner’s plan is to turn the property into a mixed-used development with retail, rental housing and open green space. The Riverchase apartments sits to the east of I-24 near downtown. It’s walking distance to the future Oracle campus and new neighborhood the city is forming around it.
The developer has not yet given current tenants a move out.
For now, the city is holding off on deciding whether to rezone the land.
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