Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel

By Lisa J. Huriash

Published October 27, 2006

TAMARAC -- It's been a year since Hurricane Wilma displaced hundreds of residents from their condos, and they still can't move back home. Now, even their furniture must be removed.

About 300 residents of Southgate Gardens have been sent a letter by their property manager telling them to get everything -- from furniture to appliances -- out of their units on Saturday so construction work can begin.

Many of the residents say they have nowhere to store their belongings, and a bad situation is getting worse.

"I don't have the money for a storage facility," said resident Guitree Basdeo, who has been living in a FEMA trailer in Margate since the storm. "Why can't we leave our stuff in an empty room?"

Residents of the 108 condos have been unable to return to their units, built in 1987 as rental apartments and converted to condos a few years ago. Interior damage includes holes in the ceilings, wet carpets and mold in the kitchens.

Blue tarps and damaged homes are still a big problem countywide. Two weeks after the storm, city and county officials deemed as unsafe 1,837 buildings, or 3,733 total residential units. Today, many residents are still homeless or have damaged roofs, but reliable estimates of the number of people still affected are difficult to get. One Miami lobbying group, No Blue Roofs, estimates there are about 8,000 blue tarp roofs in Broward County.

Michael Cernech, deputy city manager, said the Southgate Gardens buildings are red-tagged and unsafe.

"It's a major inconvenience for the residents to get the stuff out," he said. "But generally, in order for the contractor to get in and do the necessary demolition he needs to do, there can't be possessions in those rooms."

Kerry Frydman, a property manager for Phoenix Management Services in Lauderdale Lakes who is in charge of Southgate Gardens, mailed residents a letter Oct. 18 telling them they would have six hours Saturday to remove all their personal belongings. Some owners and tenants have complained of vandalism at the units and blamed the contractor, Frydman said. When work starts on the interior, walls must be removed and the contractor does not want to be held responsible for items that get damaged or stolen, he said.

"I don't know any other way to do it," Frydman said. "People have said they have no place to put it [their possessions] and I don't have an answer for them."

David Perry, the contractor for First State Development in Margate, which has been hired to rebuild the condo, could not be reached despite several calls for comment.

Sheila Powe has owned her condo for almost three years, and lived there with her husband, Karl, a daughter and two grandchildren, ages 10 and 8. The family is displaced, but they still have to pay a $600 mortgage payment and a $238 monthly maintenance fee on the condo.

They don't have extra money for rent on the Coral Springs apartment her family has to stay in. So her daughter, 36, is paying $1,400 a month in rent. The family doesn't have anything left to pay the grocery bills, she said.

The Powes initially left many belongings in their unit because it wasn't badly damaged. But after roof construction began, the roof was removed, and more of their things were destroyed or damaged by mold.

"We had to buy a new bed, new clothes, shoes, sheets, towels," she said. "When I came here, I had a few dollars. Now, I have credit card debt, thousands in debt. I have totally run out of money."

She still has a sofa and a dining room table and six chairs that are salvageable, but no way to move them from the condo.

"My son is trying to get himself a flight from New York because I cannot afford to hire someone to do this for me," she said.

Frydman said: "I want to get them home as fast as I can and we're doing everything we can to do that."