Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Neighborhood Report

Fewer sex offenders call it home

A landlord has moved some tenants from a house to a nearby church.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published September 8, 2006

The owner of a house the city cited as a nuisance has reduced the number of residents there to the legal limit and moved other tenants to a Tampa Heights church, her attorney said.

Helen Pridgen went before Tampa's code enforcement board about two weeks ago after neighbors complained that she had too many people living in her Southeast Seminole Heights home at 1303 E New Orleans Ave.

Pridgen, who does not live at the home, had a license to operate it as a boarding house and catered mostly to registered sexual predators and offenders. When the license expired in 2002, she did not renew it.

The code enforcement board found that Pridgen violated a zoning ordinance that prohibits more than five unrelated people from living in a home without a special permit. But Ethan Loeb, Pridgen's attorney, said she was in compliance when inspectors visited her house before the Aug. 23 code enforcement board hearing.

Since then, code enforcement officers have made up to three unannounced visits to the home daily, Loeb said Tuesday.

At last month's hearing, Pridgen gave inspectors permission to visit the site for 30 days after the board's vote, but Loeb said the visits are bordering on harassment.

Harold Scott, a code enforcement supervisor who has inspected the home, said the city hasn't found any occupancy violations since the board's meeting.

Scott must file a report on his findings with the board to make a final decision on compliance later this month.

As of a month ago, more than a dozen registered sexual predators and offenders listed 1303 E New Orleans Ave. as their residence with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Most of them now list their address as 2746 N Florida Ave., the Solid Rock Church of Jesus. The Tampa Heights church is about 2½ miles from the New Orleans Avenue house.

"It's my understanding that these folks have been affiliated with this church all along," Loeb said of the people living there.

Pridgen is listed as the secretary director of the church on state corporations records.

The residents who live there work to clean up the surrounding neighborhood, Loeb said.

David Banghart, who lives near the home on New Orleans, said he has noticed a change since the move.

"It's a lot quieter down there."

Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 7, 2006, 11:31:38]