City: Village Inn owner responsible for tenants

Feb. 9—The Crossville City Council agreed to up the price for the purchase of the Village Inn by $15,000 during a special-call meeting Tuesday night, but the purchase won't proceed until tenants have vacated the Main St. housing complex.

Steve Threet, manager of the Village Inn, told the Chronicle 45-50 residents remained.

"There's several who are packing and getting ready to move," Threet told the Chronicle.

The city council has approved two of three required readings to allocate funding for the purchase first approved Dec. 13. A final reading was pulled from a special-call meeting agenda Dec. 28.

Since then, city attorney Randy York has been researching various legal issues surrounding the purchase. Tuesday, he presented the council with an amended contract for the purchase, which includes an increase in the price from $450,000 to $465,000. The city has put a $20,000 deposit down for the purchase.

"There was some misunderstanding about certain requirements. This amendment more fully sets forth the obligations on each party," York told the council.

York explained the seller — Dr. Robert "Buck" Wood — is responsible for turning the property over to the city with no occupants.

"I want to make it plain we're just buying a building and some land, nothing else," York said. "Anything associated with any of the tenants or any of that kind of stuff, Dr. Wood has agreed that he would be responsible for all of that."

Residents of the Village Inn were given notices to vacate the premises by Jan. 31, with a statement the city would take possession Feb. 15. But there are still residents living at the complex.

"Within 15 days after the last tenant has vacated, they will turn off the electricity and the water, and they will notify us," York said.

Once that happens, the council can call a special meeting to consider the third and final reading for the budget amendment for the purchase.

"Whatever time it takes," York said.

The 30-day notice to vacate was issued Jan. 1 with a date of Jan. 31. It did state some tenants could remain until Feb. 14. That notice can be the first step in an eviction process.

York said, "After that, we really don't know how many tenants will be left there, whether or not there will have to be detainer actions that have to be filed. We just don't have the answer to that."

A detainer action is a court order that allows a tenant to be removed from a rental unit, an action that can only be done by a law enforcement officer. Property left behind is to be held for 30 days to allow the tenant time to claim their possessions, after which the landlord can dispose of the property.

York said once the property is vacated, the city is ready to close on the purchase.

Mayor R.J. Crawford said he had asked for data from Crossville Police Chief Jessie Brooks and the Cumberland County E-911 Center on the number of calls of emergency services to the Village Inn, which was then used to estimate the cost to the city.

The data included all calls to police, fire and Emergency Medical Services calls to the address at 1 Burnett St. The data is from Jan. 1, 2019, through Feb. 1, 2023, with 1,047 calls.

By comparison, Walmart had 3,039 calls during the same period. Most of the calls to Walmart were a result of traffic accidents on Hwy. 127 turning into the parking lot at Walmart to report the incident, Crawford said.

E-911 records requested by the Chronicle last August found 192 calls from Aug. 1, 2021, to Aug. 1, 2022. Property manager Steve Threet has said some of the calls were from him alerting authorities to the presence of someone he knew was being sought on a warrant or to have trespassers removed.

"If you consider the amount of people in that location compared to the traffic you see at Walmart, Woodmere Mall, which is a high retail area, [E-911 Director Eric Ritzman] said this was a significantly high area," Crawford said.

Crawford asked City Manager Greg Wood and Brooks to calculate a cost to the city for those resources, using a cost of $15 to $19.44 per hour.

"It can be from a five-minute call to an hour-plus call," Crawford said. "They stipulated the cost to city resources, on a conservative estimate, was over $112,000.

"I bring that up to say we need to do what we can to move forward in getting the Village Inn shut down. I know the conversation that has been had is people are going to have to move out. What are we going to do about that?" he continued

Crawford said city officials brought together resource agencies to attempt to work with residents on finding new housing options.

Vivian Walker, with Homeless Advocacy for Rural Tennessee, said she had made herself available to tenants, talking with 25 households about their situation. Unfortunately, though the residents were facing eviction and at risk of becoming homeless, they did not qualify for vouchers from Housing and Urban Development meant for homeless individuals because they were not currently homeless.

"HUD has a technicality that if they're not on-the-street homeless, I can't serve them with a homeless voucher," Walker said. "It didn't come under my wing exactly."

Residents faced different barriers to qualifying for public housing or rentals through Section 8 or the open market. These included unpaid rent or certain convictions. Those issues have been explored, though Greg Wood told the Chronicle previously that only certain charges can qualify for expungement.

"We can't resolve everything," Walker said. "For some people who had arrearages, there was more than that. There was damage or issues that landlords were not willing to take them back."

Walker said a case manager had been working to help residents sign up for certain benefits, file to restart disability payments or seek mental health services or in-patient care.

"Sometimes they don't know how to fix the problem — they lost their food stamps and they don't know how to fix it," Walker said.

Threet praised the efforts of Crossville Police Det. Tim Vandever and the department's CID Administrative Coordinator Latoya Hargis, who have been working with individuals at the Village Inn to help them navigate resources and, hopefully, find new accommodations.

"I have nothing but high praise," Threet said of the two. But he added, "That's the only help the city's given us."

Dr. Wood declined to comment for this article.

Crawford moved to accept the new contract and increase the budget amendment to $465,000 to cover any additional costs related to the purchase. Council member Rob Harrison seconded the motion.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.