More than 200 people can’t go home for Christmas after a fire forced them out of Jacksonville Townhouse Apartments last week.
“It’s like, it’s not Christmas,” said displaced tenant Julia Wester, who is spending the holiday at an extended stay hotel.
Wester had planned to host a Christmas party at Jacksonville Townhouse Apartments.
“We make plans, but we never know what God has in store,” Wester said.
The building is one of six U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development properties in Jacksonville managed by the same company, Cambridge Management.
An Action News Jax Investigation of HUD inspection reports reveals that none of Cambridge Management’s HUD apartments in Jacksonville were inspected this year, although five of the six properties were due for HUD inspection in 2017.
Unless those inspections happen this week, they will be overdue.
The apartment complexes’ most recent inspections revealed four of the six properties had fire safety deficiencies, including unusable fire exits and missing fire extinguishers.
Half of the properties had missing or broken smoke detectors.
Here’s how each Cambridge Management HUD property in Jacksonville scored on its most recent inspection:
Hampton Villa Apartments – Overdue, unless it's inspected this week
- Last inspection: Aug. 2016
- Score: 65c*
*The asterisk indicates smoke detector deficiencies were found.
- "c" indicates fire safety deficiencies
- Points were deducted because fire exits were unusable
Hilltop Village Apartments – Overdue, unless it's inspected this week
- Last Inspection: Dec. 2015
- Score: 85c*
- Asterisk indicates smoke detector deficiencies were found
- "c" indicates fire safety deficiencies
- Points were deducted because fire exits were blocked
- Points were deducted because of missing or inoperable smoke detectors
- More than 10 percent of fire extinguishers were missing, damaged or expired
Jacksonville Townhouse Apartments – Overdue
- Last inspection: Feb. 2014
- Score: 93b
- "b" indicates non-life threatening health and safety deficiencies, no fire safety deficiencies
- HUD says inspection was scheduled this year, but postponed because of planned renovations
Stevens Duval Apartments– CURRENT, not due until 2019
- Last inspection: Jan. 2016
- Score: 93b
- "b" indicates non-life threatening health and safety deficiencies, no fire safety deficiencies
Timuquana Park Apartments – Overdue, unless it's inspected this week
- Last inspection: Dec. 2016
- Score: 63c*
- Asterisk indicates smoke detector deficiencies were found
- "c" indicates fire safety deficiencies
- Missing smoke detectors
University Plaza – Overdue, unless it's inspected this week
- Last inspection: Dec. 2015
- Score: 83c
- "c" indicates fire safety deficiencies
- Missing/damaged/expired fire extinguishers
- More than 10 percent of fire extinguishers were missing, damaged or expired
Last week, Action News Jax looked through about 80 pages of recent inspections at the four Cambridge Management apartment complexes that receive Jacksonville Housing Authority vouchers.
Of of the 68 families that received vouchers for those properties this year, seven live in units that failed inspection.
That’s about 10 percent.
Hampton Ridge had the most units that failed inspections, with four.
Pinewood Pointe Apartments had two units that failed and Hillwood Pointe Apartments had one.
No units in which JHA-voucher families lived at Timberwood Trace Apartments failed inspection this year.
In addition to the fire damage, asbestos was found in Jacksonville Townhouse Apartments. As a result, the people who lived there don’t know when they’ll be able to return.
In the meantime, strangers, including Jeff Phillips, have been doing what they can to help the displaced tenants.
Phillips is staying at the same extended stay hotel as many of those tenants, and got his friends together to make them Christmas dinner.
“I just wanted everybody to have a good Christmas,” said Phillips.
The meal was a welcome treat during a time of uncertainty.
“It’s the little things, man,” said displaced Jacksonville Townhouse Apartments tenant J.C. Cruz.
Lief Hanson heard that the wheelchair the American Red Cross supplied to double amputee Pamela Sands didn’t fit properly, so he brought her one his wife used to use.
That wheelchair didn’t fit properly either, so Hanson said he’s going to make some adjustments and try again tomorrow.
“That’s the way society should be, is helping look out for each other,” said Hanson.
Jacksonville's fire marshal, Chief Kevin Jones, said he’s still investigating whether all of the fire alarms in Jacksonville Townhouse Apartments went off during the fire. He said he went back to the apartment on Friday, but no one from Cambridge Management was there to answer his questions.
The building had a broken fire pump.
The fire marshal’s office instructed Cambridge Management in a Dec. 1 email to either evacuate or start an hourly fire watch after inspectors discovered the broken fire pump.
Jones told Action News Jax that the building’s management was supposed to keep a log of the fire watch until the fire pump was fixed.
Jones said that log should have included who conducted the required hourly patrol and when it was conducted. He said apartment management was not able to provide any such documentation.
Cox Media Group
