Hundreds of Colonial Village tenants still need housing as deadline to vacate motels looms
Roughly four months after more than 1,300 people were displaced from the Colonial Village apartments on Columbus’ East Side, the housing emergency continues for many former residents and the city.
Less than one-third of the 523 households who moved into city-provided hotel rooms following a mass eviction late last year have been able to find housing on their own, according to data from the city’s Department of Development. The rest remain in hotels as an April 30 deadline approaches for them to move out.
Colonial Village closed in December as a result of hundreds of emergency housing code violations. A lot of the residents were Haitian asylum seekers whom officials said had been tricked into coming to Columbus from Florida by a network of human traffickers, only to end up living in units lacking heat and hot water. Many of the 850 adults and 520 children were paying rent under fake rental contracts issued by a management company staff member who was running an off-the-books side business, according to court documents submitted by the city and the property’s receivership estate.
Shannon Isom, CEO of the Community Shelter Board, told The Dispatch she is hopeful the city will extend the current deadline by a month for families to move out — as it has already done once before.
“Although we want to see all things resolved at a faster clip, there is resolve for a population that has many dimensions of issues that have to be addressed,” she said, noting that emptying the hotels would place more pressure on the city’s shelters.
However, the city has not made a final determination about whether to extend the deadline, according to Hannah Jones, deputy director for community development at the city Department of Development.
“The city continues to monitor and evaluate the situation,” Jones said. “The city remains committed to ensuring that every family has a safe sheltering option and can be linked with the services needed in order to allow them to find a long-term, sustainable housing option.”
Many Haitian former tenants don't qualify for Section 8 housing help
The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has issued 66 new Section 8 housing vouchers to former Colonial Village residents, a spokesperson said.
Because the Haitian asylum seekers did not meet eligibility requirements, all of the vouchers awarded went to U.S. citizens who were living at Colonial Village.
Section 8 voucher holders pay one-third of their income in rent and the rest is covered by the voucher. Still, voucher recipients say it can be difficult to find landlords willing to accept vouchers, despite a city law requiring them to do so.
Expert: Colonial Village displaced symptom of larger housing problem
Community Shelter's Isom said that Colonial Village residents’ housing troubles are an acute reflection of a chronic affordability problem in central Ohio: as the city becomes more desirable for businesses and individuals, fewer open housing units are available, and the prices go up.
“We have just literally run out of housing,” she said. “We are under 4% vacancy. … (That means) you've run out of stock. … To give you some framing, (other) cities that are under 4% are Los Angeles and San Francisco.”
The challenges of finding a place to live can multiply for asylum seekers and other non-citizens.
Some of the Haitians, who are living in hotels spread out across Greater Columbus, are still waiting on employment authorization documents from the federal government. But even those with jobs and immigration documentation face other hurdles, according to Marc Fequiere, executive director of the local nonprofit Haitian Community Network.
Landlords’ requirements of a U.S. credit history and an income three times higher than the monthly rent are often obstacles for the Haitians from Colonial Village, Fequiere said last month.
Colonial Village crisis may cost city over $5.2 million
The city has contracted rehousing firm R.H. Brown & Co. to assist Colonial Village residents find new housing at a cost of $300,000.
Columbus has spent $4 million to date for the Colonial Village residents’ hotel bills, and will commit another $700,000 at the end of the month, according to Jones. City Council is also planning to approve $250,000 to assist with legal services for families, she said.
The city is seeking to recoup those costs from the receivership estate that owns the apartment complex, but a Franklin County judge has yet to rule on that motion in court.
Colonial Village was placed into receivership in early 2022, prior to the current crisis, after owner Apex Colonial LLC faced numerous code violations and the property was declared a public nuisance. According to the City Attorney’s office, some of Apex Colonial’s owners were the same individuals behind another limited liability corporation (LLC) that owned the Latitude Five25 towers, where pipes froze on Christmas Day 2022, leading to another massive housing emergency.
Colonial Village’s receivership estate is funded by the property’s mortgage holder, EFM Transfer Agent LLC. Securities and Exchange Commission filings indicate that EFM is a subsidiary of Ellington Financial Inc., a publicly traded corporation based in Connecticut.
A company spokesperson did not respond to The Dispatch’s emailed questions about the case last month.
Likewise, an attorney for EFM declined to comment beyond what they had submitted in court filings.
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Deadline for evicted Colonial Village residents to vacate motels looms
