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Heritage House Tenants Vent Anger Over Displacement | St. Louis

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click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD JoAnne Adams explains problems she’s encountered in her four years at Heritage House.
No one could envy Jo Bozeman as she walked into a packed meeting room at the Hilton by St. Louis International Airport on Thursday night.
Bozeman is the president of the Heritage House Corporation Board of Directors. The board owns the Heritage House Apartments, the 18-story high-rise at 2800 Olive Street that’s stood vacant since January 14, when frozen pipes burst, flooding the 11th floor and basement and scattering nearly 200 residents — most elderly and disabled — to temporary shelters across the St. Louis area.
And now here was Bozeman, picking her way through a packed crowd of nearly 100 people, many in wheelchairs or with walkers and canes leaning against chairs and tables. The audience gazed at Bozeman — staring at her, hard, with the skepticism and anxiety natural to disaster survivors when someone in charge collects them in a group and tells them things are going to be OK.
Really?
Like an acrobat trying to cross a swinging tightrope, Bozeman had a nearly impossible task: mollify the tenants and prepare them for the next step — finding a new home — while also keeping a tight lid on years of pent-up complaints about Heritage House’s poor track record on plumbing, heating and water issues.
And Bozeman tried. Good God, she tried.
Several audience members asked what will happen to their major possessions, such as furniture. As one tenant pointed out, the building’s freight elevator has been out for a month, and the former residents are allowed only 15-minute stretches to retrieve their stuff.
Another audience member pointed out that a moving company quoted her a cost of $1,500 to move her possessions out of the high-rise.
“To get all this done within the time permitted is impossible,” the audience member said. “Especially if I have to work every day.”
Bozeman took a reassuring tone, telling the crowd that no deadline has been set for removing items from the building, which is condemned and will be closed for at least a year while repairs are made.
“As long as you are here, your things will be OK at Heritage House,” Bozeman said.
click to enlarge MIKE FITZGERALD James Island spoke at a meeting last night.
But James Island was having none of it.
Island noted that Heritage House’s owners and property manager Sansone Group have agreed only to refund January rent and security deposits, in addition to allowing tenants to stay at the Hilton on Heritage House’s dime until February 6.
But that wasn’t enough — not nearly enough.
“Sansone is getting off the hook, big time,” Island said, noting that if any of the tenants had broken their lease they’d be facing a raft of financial penalties.
But Heritage House and Sansone?
“We’re not breaking the lease,” Island said. “They’re breaking the lease.”
Janice Lee, 64, who moves with the help of a wheelchair because her right leg is amputated below the knee, called the tenants’ situation “inhumane” and asked, “How in the hell are we supposed to find housing in this short time? I am truly pissed. I need answers.”
Sansone stated that the Heritage House Corporation Board of Directors had previously arranged to put residents up at the Hilton and was paying for their stay. But the company sent a letter to the evacuees on Monday, January 23, informing them the financial support will only last until January 30. They could stay at the Hilton — but only at their own expense.
Many tenants were relieved to learn yesterday that their Hilton stay will now be paid for until February 6, but the bigger problem — finding permanent housing — still has not been addressed.
Sansone representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Local churches and community groups have been stepping up to help the evacuees. Action St. Louis, a racial justice organization active with tenants rights, has been conducting wellness checks on the displaced tenants. The Urban League and St. Louis Area Agency on Aging are collaborating on a two-day housing fair set for next week to match tenants with new rental units. click to enlarge The 18-story Heritage House has been condemned since a water pipe burst January 14 — leaving its elderly and disabled tenants in a scramble to find new housing.
Still, some Heritage House tenants could not let go of a crucial idea: accountability.
JoAnne Adams was one of them.
Adams stood up near the end of the meeting and reeled off a long list of problems that she endured at Heritage House during her four years living there.
“If they’re giving us a month’s rent and a security deposit, they’re getting away with murder,” Adams said. “I lost a new job because of two issues with the plumbing. How stupid do you think we are?”
Others voiced similar complaints.
Finally, Bozeman had had enough.
“It’s a big gripe session now,” she said.
“It’s not a gripe session,” another woman replied.
A neighbor interjected: “It’s not their fault. They’re here to help us.”
Regardless of who bore the blame, a woman at a nearby table summed up the mood for everyone.
“This is trauma.”
Mike Fitzgerald can be reached at [email protected]
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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.
Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.
The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.
The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.
This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.
As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.
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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.
“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”
He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”
The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”
Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”
The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.
Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”
In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.
“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”
Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”
Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.
“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.
Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)
One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.
Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.
“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”
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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.
The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.
The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.
The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.
To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/
“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”
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