SANFORD, Fla. — Boarded up windows, broken doors, and rat infestations are among the complaints at a public housing complex on 3rd Street in Sanford that is in such awful condition that city leaders want it torn down.
The complex, Lake Monroe Terrace (see map), is operated by the already-troubled Sanford Housing Authority.
If it is torn down, there's no money to rebuild it, so a tear-down does not necessarily mean a new Lake Monroe Terrace would be built in its place.
Residents say it's barely livable. Valerie Wilson leaves an entire bedroom unused in her apartment because holes in the walls allow rats in, which bit her 3-year-old as she slept.
"This is what we're living with right now and it's unfortunate and it's really sad," Wilson said.
In fact, the 100 units at Lake Monroe Terrace are in such disrepair, the Sanford Housing Authority wants them demolished. Monday night, the city gave its blessing to the plan.
At Unit 53, the windows are boarded up and the walls are crumbling. It's one of the apartments that's so bad, it's already sitting empty.
Shenita Williams said she's lived with uncontrollable mildew for ten years.
"They say it's beyond repair. Do you agree?" WFTV reporter George Spencer asked.
"Yes, I do. They can't do nothing else with it. They don't have the money to do anything with it," Williams said.
Sanford leaders agreed to support a tear-down there if the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) finds that repairs/renovations are not a cost-effective alternative and that the units of Lake Monroe Terrace are obsolete, uninhabitable and beyond repair.
The Authority could then apply for enough new Section 8 vouchers to help relocate displaced families into private housing.
"If they got vouchers, would you be willing to move?" Spencer asked Williams.
"Oh yes, definitely. Definitely. Soon as they say give me the voucher, I'm gone! I'm not coming back!" she said.
The Housing Authority's board would ultimately decide whether to rebuild a new complex or keep displaced residents on Section 8 vouchers long-term. HUD generally takes a little more than three months to decide whether a complex should be razed.
WFTV has covered several problems at the Sanford Housing Authority this year alone. Last month, the federal government gave a scathing review of the authority. The report said the agency is broke and its units are in extremely poor condition.
WFTV also found residents who had gone without heating for two years and others who never received their monthly utility assistance checks.
WFTV
