Air conditioning problems at an Atlanta apartment building for seniors are close to being fully resolved, according to Mayor Kasim Reed.
The mayor visited Friendship Tower Apartments on Wednesday after months of complaints from residents who said the building’s inadequate cooling system left many in sweltering heat through much of the summer. At one point, the problem became so worrisome that the apartment’s management was court-ordered to make the repairs and some of its 90 residents were relocated to a hotel.
Reed’s administration helped relocate the seniors and provided them with food and water during the ordeal, a spokeswoman said.
The apartment building is owned by Friendship Tower Inc., a nonprofit with connections to Friendship Baptist Church, according to the nonprofit’s president, Lloyd Hawk.
He previously served as spokesman for Friendship Baptist, one of two churches that relocated for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium. The church received $19.5 million as part of those negotiations.
On Wednesday, Reed said he visited a half dozen apartments at random and most were sufficiently cool, but that there’s more work to be done.
The facility failed a recent inspection by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Reed said. He did not elaborate and a copy of the report couldn’t be obtained on Wednesday. Reed said he’s now appealing to HUD — which provides vouchers to residents for use at Friendship Tower — to allow some seniors to relocate to another facility.
“We’re not going to walk away until the 90 people who call this place home are satisfied,” Reed said.
Hawk said the HUD inspection was conducted while the air conditioning system was being replaced and that the other violations have since been resolved. He noted that Reed’s visit comes days after a Fulton County Superior Court judge deemed the repairs sufficient.
Hawk said “90 percent” of the residents are satisfied with the repairs and that Friendship Tower is helping those who want to relocate find new homes.
Tameka Ward said she plans to move her 83-year-old father, Lawrence King, to a new facility. She worries that, despite the fixes, other problems could continue at the Northside Drive building.
“This didn’t just happen in (the past) 60 days or 120 days,” she said. “The issue is, even if the people move, I wouldn’t want to see anybody else in this predicament two or three years down the road.”
Hawk said his organization is exploring plans to build a new center.
