Article Courtesy of The Sun
Sentinel
By Robin Benedick
Published October 23, 2007
Two years after
Hurricane Wilma destroyed their condos, some owners are still waiting to
go home.
Many must pay rent as well as their mortgage, insurance, taxes,
maintenance and special assessments for repairs on a place they can only
dream of living in again.
No one agency tracks the number of homes left uninhabitable since Wilma
struck on Oct. 24, 2005. But building officials say there are dozens,
predominantly in Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Tamarac and at Kings Point
west of Delray Beach.
Why are the repairs taking so long? In some cases, condo boards have run
out of money, are waiting for insurance or have had problems with
contractors. Some boards have yet to levy special assessments; in other
associations, owners have stopped paying.
Life has not returned to
normal for some Wilma victims.
Losing his Sunrise three-bedroom town
home was bad enough, but watching his marriage fall apart
because of it was worse. Hubert Gibson, 41, and his wife,
Shannon, have lived apart for much of the past two years. He
sleeps on a living room couch at a friend's house. His wife
and 8-year-old son are living with a woman his mom knows.
"This has taken a definite toll on my marriage,"
said Gibson, a customer service agent for Delta Air Lines.
After Wilma blew the roof off the home they bought for
$139,000 in 2003, the Gibsons rented an apartment. But it
got too expensive so they moved in with friends.
"It's difficult going through all of this and then to
have my son keep asking, 'Daddy, when am I coming back to
live in our house?' makes it worse." |
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No
one agency tracks the number of homes left uninhabitable since Wilma
struck on Oct. 24, 2005. But building officials say there are dozens,
predominantly in Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Tamarac and at Kings
Point west of Delray Beach. |
Moving seven times in two years at 79 years old is debilitating. Just ask
Florence "Kitty" Ford, who rents a one-bedroom condo in the same
Hawaiian Gardens complex in Lauderdale Lakes where her damaged condo sits.
The board hired a new contractor on Oct. 12 and Ford should be back home
in a few months.
"There were so many people looking for places to rent I could only
get a place for a month or two months," she said. "Going through
this makes you just want to die. I'm still very depressed."
Each month, Ford, a widow, pays $750 for rent, $200 for storage, and $300
in condo maintenance and fees. Her mortgage is paid after 18 years at the
sprawling 55-plus complex. She lives on $1,300 a month in Social Security
and must dip into her savings every month to pay the bills.
"All I've got left is my TV," she said between sobs.
Every day, Leonard Biondo stops by his ruined Sunrise condo to get his
mail.
At 49, Biondo said, his life feels like it's been on hold for two years.
"It's frustrating," he said. "You don't want to buy
anything or do anything or go anywhere. You try to put money away. Your
life is just at a standstill."
Biondo is single and works as a waiter. He has lived in the upstairs condo
at Origins of Welleby since 1986. He pays $550 a month to rent a room in a
double-wide trailer in Lauderhill. He said he would have rented an
apartment had he known repairs on his condo would take so long.
"I guess you take it for granted when you can just go home every day
until it's taken away from you like that," Biondo said.
When Sandra Covin moved into Kings Point in Delray Beach six years ago,
she spent about $15,000 on renovations.
The
remodeling bug bit again six months before Wilma struck and the retired
executive finished $30,000 worth of improvements for such things as higher
ceilings, crown molding and wood floors.
She shudders at what it will cost to redo her place.
"This is my retirement and that's why I'm stuck. Where am I going to
go? I've used up my financial resources," said Covin, 70, who pays
$850 for rent, $343 for condo maintenance and $170 for storage. She said
she already paid a $1,700 assessment for repairs.
If she
isn't home by the end of the year, Covin said, she may walk away from her
condo.
"It's cheaper for me to rent at Kings Point than to fix it up and pay
the maintenance," she said.
Two weeks before Wilma hit, Giselle Sanabria had a buyer for her
two-bedroom condo in Sunrise. She moved into a three-bedroom house nearby
with her handyman husband, Jose Rosales, and young daughter.
But the sale fell through because of the buyer's credit history. Then
Wilma destroyed their remodeled second-floor condo that "we loved.
... It was like brand new, but we had Natalie and we wanted a bigger place
and a yard."
Today, the condo sits gutted along with nearly two-dozen others at Origins
of Welleby. The condo board is waiting on a federal loan and insurance
money.
"We can't rent, we can't sell, we can't do anything with the
condo," said Sanabria, who moved here from Peru three years ago.
She and her husband struggle each month to pay $3,460 for the house and
condo. To pay their bills, the couple rents a room in their house to two
relatives and has canceled cable TV and Internet service.
Single mom Marjorie Norval is facing foreclosure on the two-bedroom condo
she bought at Stonebridge Gardens in Lauderhill just two months prior to
Wilma.
Norval, 31, has fallen two months' behind on her mortgage, maintenance and
special assessment. She said she can't afford the monthly mortgage since
it ballooned in September to $900 from $691 because the adjustable rate
went up. She said she also owes a $444 special assessment and $888 in
fees.
Norval pays her mother $400 a month to share a bedroom with her
11-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter in the Pompano Beach home where
she grew up.
"I'm ready to give up and sell this at a loss," said Norval, who
paid $109,000 for the first home she's owned.
Repairs have mostly languished as condo boards fight with insurance
companies over payouts.
"My whole plan was to purchase property and keep it for two years and
then buy a bigger place," she said. "I've just been going
backward ever since."
Losing her condo was bad. Then she learned she had cancer.
About the only good thing that has happened to 28-year-old Teri Marriage
since Wilma hit was meeting her fiancé. Their wedding is set for March
and they hope to be out of her parent's house and into her Sunrise condo
by then.
Ironically, Marriage is a project coordinator for a construction company.
She spends her days helping other people get their buildings done.
"My boss keeps telling me as soon as you're ready, we're coming in to
fix this place," said Marriage. "I can't wait to redo it
again."
She and fiancé Ehren Kuespert moved in with her parents because they
can't afford to rent while paying $900 a month for her condo.
"I guess I have more of a positive outlook on things than most people
after everything I've been through," said Marriage, who was diagnosed
with cancer in February.
Others
are still struggling after Wilma
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