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The last to leave
By JOSH ZIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, UNIVERSITY NORTH -- The buildings still stand, but on this lonely stretch of 24th Street the boarded-up windows with "No Trespassing" signs are the clear winners. The low-income neighborhood, tucked between 136th and 138th avenues, has been whittled down to its last living remnants. The Hillsborough County School District is eager to bring in the demolition crews to make way for a $15-million elementary and high school project. But despite a major relocation effort, the Aug. 31 moving deadline has passed and a handful of people are still living here. State Rep. Sara Romeo, D-Lutz, who has kept in close contact with residents and school officials, said at least three of the families are ready to go. That leaves the school district to deal with the plight of Juanita Davis, who, after the relocation of 125 residents, is the toughest holdout. "The stickler in the group seems to be Juanita Davis, and that seems to be a concern of everybody I talked to," Romeo said. Davis is not the only person in the 24th Street area still looking for a place. Kendra Lee, who lives with her child and her fiance's three kids, said Thursday she is waiting to see if their application for a two-bedroom, two-bath near Fletcher Avenue will be accepted. At $750 a month, they may have to borrow money from her fiance's parents, she said. But it is Davis who has attracted the attention of both Romeo and the school district. For humanitarian reasons, as well as to move the project forward and help the schools avoid a public relations disaster, Romeo suggested Friday that the school district simply pay to move Davis. But the school district did not give her an answer, she said. The district, which began buying property on 24th Street this spring, believes it offered residents a generous deal when it allowed people to live in their apartments for free. The terms were meant to be an opportunity to save money for rents, security deposits and, in some cases, payments on a first home. "We have been paying her rent . . . we have been taking care of her," schools spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said. Davis, however, has defied those intentions. She has not saved any money, because, she says, she did not have any to begin with when the school district came in. Unemployed since 1999, she lost her last source of income in June when the Department of Children and Families stopped paying her $325 a month to support her teenage son. Now, since her last neighbor left last week, she lives alone on food stamps, getting daily visits from friends. Davis knows about the deadline and is defiant. Cinnamon Cove Apartments, a destination for her last two neighbors, could not help her when she revealed she did not have an income. Her Social Security disability payments are scheduled to start in December, but until then, she said, she firmly believes the school district should carry her load, including the cost of her medication following spinal surgery. Papers show that her Medicaid was cut off weeks ago. "It's aggravating . . . and I'm tired," she said. "I'm just asking them to take care of me until December." Romeo agreed. "If I were them, I would lease a place for her, pay the landlord for two or three months and move her in," she said. "That way she would be protected and provided for. I still feel there is no way they're going to throw her out on the street. But Juanita is part of the problem. It seems a lot of other people are working harder for her than she is for herself." Cinnamon Cove property manager Judy Ormsbee said neighborhood residents would get "special consideration," including the waiving of deposit and application fees. "But if they have absolutely no income . . . I don't know who in the world could help them," she said. "We can't give them a free apartment." The entire project area is much larger than 24th Street. Planners hope to clear more than 20 acres between Livingston Avenue and 22nd Street and 136th and 138th avenues for improvements that include the schools and a health clinic. Negotiations with property owners continue, Cobbe said. At least one homeowner, Fred Mullet, said he does not want to leave his home at the corner of 136th Avenue and 23rd Street. "I plan on living right here," he said. Meanwhile, other apartment dwellers are dealing with their own uncertainty. Wendell Stevenson, who lives across from Mullet, is not sure how he would find the money to make a sudden move. No one, he said, has told him exactly what's going on. "Right now I see it closing over here, closing over there," he said. "It would be bad if it happened at the last minute." The school district, which has alternated between tough talk and accommodation, currently has no timetable for moving everyone out, Cobbe said. As for Romeo's suggestion that the district pay Davis' relocation costs, she would only say it remains a possibility. "I'm sure that's being considered, but I don't know (if) a decision has been made," Cobbe said. "We don't have permits; we are still buying property." Davis, she added, "will not be put out on the street."
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