Holes in floors. Mold & bats. MS Coast tenants spend years pleading for home repairs

Reality Check is a Sun Herald series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email mynews@sunherald.com.

Pass Christian resident Sarah Hampton and her family have lived with gaping holes in their floors, a toilet that is not affixed to the floor, a dishwasher broken for months, no heat for two winters and other problems with their rental house in North Street Villas.

The Coast law enforcement officer and mom found other tenants who also said they were unable to get needed repairs to their rental houses in Pass Estates and North Street Villas subdivisions, where a total of 166 elevated houses were built for working families after Hurricane Katrina.

Residents have been asking the city to help for at least three years. More recently, Hampton created a Facebook page for the subdivisions, met with Pass Christian’s mayor and code enforcement officer, and spoke out at Board of Aldermen meetings. She also sued North Street Villas in Justice Court, while the subdivision filed its own case to have her evicted.

“I’m really big about people being just and fair and doing the right thing,” said Hampton, who was her department’s officer of the year in 2022. “Even if I move, I’m not going to stop what I’m doing because it’s not fair to everyone else. ... The bottom line is, someone is allowing this to continue to happen. There’s no humanity here in how this is being handled.”

Eight residents interviewed over recent months by the Sun Herald point to windows that don’t close, moisture that has damaged flooring and ceilings, mold, broken appliances and lights, bat-infested attics and rickety outdoor staircases. Some needed repairs have lingered since Hurricane Zeta in 2020, Hampton, other residents and city leaders say.

“A lot of people are very frustrated,” said Jessica Crosby, a young mother whose Pass Estates home needs numerous repairs. “For a lot of us, this is our only option. This is the cheapest place for us to live. It’s kind of heartbreaking to see how bad the houses have gotten.”

Deferred maintenance has worsened conditions in some of the homes, city leaders agree. They say that they are working to get the homes inspected and brought up to property maintenance codes for the safety of residents.

Clarence Chapman of Oxford, whose companies developed and manage the subdivisions, blames “the vast majority of our damage” on tenants. He said damage from hurricanes is repaired as it’s discovered, and that repairs can be completed only if they are brought to management’s attention and work orders are filled out.

“We have run into a group of residents that, unfortunately, like to complain more than normal,” Chapman said. “We’re working around that and any that have problems, we want to take care of them.”

Workforce housing built after hurricane

Workforce housing was in short supply after Hurricane Katrina.

With 127 homes, Pass Estates is the larger of three subdivisions that Chapman built north of the CSX railroad tracks in Pass Christian with Katrina housing grants or tax credits.

To help finance Pass Estates construction, he received about $2.5 million in annual tax credits sold to investors, who can claim the credits for 10 years. In exchange, the units must be rented to tenants whose incomes are below the area median.

Residents will have the option to purchase their homes after 15 years, or beginning in 2026.

Chapman has been developing tax credit houses in Mississippi longer than most and also has one of the largest operations, said Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Housing Corp., which oversees the program. The Chapman company that manages the properties, Sentry Asset Management, “traditionally does a good job,” Spivey said, with no history of serious issues.

MHC periodically inspects homes in Pass Estates. A November inspection found deficiencies in 29 of 30 houses inspected, the report shows. Deficiencies included carpet and appliances that need to be replaced, mildew, vines growing next to homes, damaged garage doors and other issues.

MHC will forward a report of noncompliance to the Internal Revenue Service and houses without verified repairs were scheduled for reinspection on Monday, Feb. 5, a letter emailed to Chapman said.

Pass Christian house repair needed

Shelia Bryant knows all about the carpet that needs to be replaced. She lives in Pass Estates, in a home she says her husband had to leave because he couldn’t breathe. She said the carpet needed to be replaced five years ago, but it hasn’t happened. She’s put throw rugs over the carpet in the bedrooms. She says the rug in her husband’s room covers a hole in the floor.

There’s a moisture problem, too. The vents in all the rooms stay wet, she said, and are visibly rusted. Also, the gutter that runs along her roof line is not connected to the downspout, so water pours onto the wood porch and exterior ceiling behind it.

But Bryant said her home is in good shape compared to some others. She believes 90% of problems with the houses could be avoided with proper maintenance. She said that she takes her complaints to Chapman’s management company, Sentry Asset Management, which is supposed to put in work orders for repairs.

Under Mississippi law, tenants must put repair needs in writing before they can expect repairs.

“Management takes care of nothing and is letting this place fall apart,” Bryant said. “If they had proper maintenance for the properties and paid them decent wages, this would never have happened. When you have a small problem with a house and its left unattended, generally, it gets worse.”

After the MHC inspection, city requests for action and questions from the Sun Herald about the condition of homes in the subdivisions, workers were busy with repairs on Friday. “They’re moving around like ants out here,” Bryant said.

Her neighbor Veronica “Ann” Barrigan was one of the residents who went to the Board of Aldermen two years ago about repair needs. At the time, her floor was falling in, she said. She even put a traffic cone in front of one hole to keep her teenage grandson from falling through.

She said the floors were repaired after the visit to the aldermen. But problems with the floors persist. Areas in the living room and hallway still sink when stepped on.

Chapman said the problem has been noted with the floors in a few units and his workers “are trying to figure out what caused it” so the floors can be repaired.

Barrigan also has had problems with termites and bats. She said her nephew has caught two bats in the house, although they haven’t seen any recently. Barrigan can’t afford to move, which several other residents said is the case for them, too. She pays a rent-restricted $810 a month for a four-bedroom house.

Besides, both she and Bryant said they love their neighborhood and neighbors, who gather for cookouts and just to socialize. If the houses were maintained, they say, they would be happy in Pass Estates.

Tenant, housing managers wind up in court

Hampton finally had to give up on keeping her family’s home.

She supplied the Sun Herald with emails that date back to September 2021 requesting repairs on broken appliances, heat that still doesn’t work, a loose toilet still not affixed to the floor and, worst of all, soft flooring that eventually gives way, creating holes.

Because of the holes in the floor, Hampton stopped paying full rent in September, reasoning the family couldn’t use all their living space. She cut the payments in half. But Mississippi law doesn’t allow tenants to do that.

Tenants can put a repair need in writing and, if it’s not fixed in 30 days, make the repair, document the cost and deduct it from their rent. However, the cost of the repair can’t exceed one month’s rent.

Hampton and representatives from North Villa Estates wound up in Justice Court. North Villa filed to evict Hampton because she wasn’t paying full rent and she filed to recover $3,500 because she’s being forced to move.

In court, Hampton described the condition of her family’s home. “I’m living in a home that is like a vagrant would live in,” she said.

Celeste Womack, regional manager for Sentry Asset Management, the company that oversees the subdivisions, shot back, “Are we holding you hostage?”

Womack also said the Hamptons’ large, mastiff-like dog had damaged the floors by urinating on them. After looking at pictures Hampton gave him in a bound notebook, the judge said he wasn’t buying it.

“It’s very clear to the court that the property has some major issues,” Judge Brandon Ladner said. “It’s very clear to the court that some repairs need to be done.”

However, he also ruled that Sentry had a right to evict Hampton and her family for non-payment of rent. He didn’t write the landlord-tenant laws, he added, but has to apply them as a judge.

Ladner also noted Sentry wasn’t trying to collect any back rent from Hampton.

“At this time,” Womack had testified, “We would just like for Ms. Hampton to move.”

He wanted to strike “a balance” he said, by giving Hampton until Feb. 8 to move. He reset court for that date and said if she moved by then, he would dismiss the case without evicting her. He did not award Hampton the $3,500 she sought, saying she had produced no documentation to show she was out that much money.

After court, Hampton said she thought she should have been awarded the money to cover first and last month’s rent for a new place. She’s scouring the area for a home that she and her husband can afford.

“I just feel like they should owe me money for making me live like that,” she said.