LITTLETON — Residents of a senior-living apartment building were told Tuesday night that their leases had been terminated after a recent two-alarm fire.
Dozens of residents of the Southview Place Towers Apartments, in the 5800 block of South Windermere Street, attended the meeting at Littleton United Methodist Church.
Most processed the news with a mix of strong emotions, including sadness, anger and helplessness.
Rose Sullivan, 94, has lived in her one-bedroom apartment for 15 years.
Sullivan, with her daughter, Nancy Emerick, at her side, left the meeting and wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke.
“I just can’t take it anymore,” she said. “I’m tired.”
Sullivan, who lives on a fixed Social Security income, said rent on her one-bedroom unit was raised in November from $735 to $875.
She’d be hard-pressed to find any living space in or near the downtown Littleton area in the same price range.
Cleanup and repairs at the complex are expected to take six months.
The American Red Cross, which has been aiding fire victims, donated $125 to Sullivan for expenses. Also, she received a $30 King Soopers gift card. But that money is gone and Sullivan’s concerns are overwhelming.
“I’m on a fixed income, I’ve got to make it stretch,” she said. “I’m just tired and run-down. I can barely walk.”
Andy Boian of Dovetail Solutions is working for the apartment’s owner, as well as with the Red Cross and others in the community, to help residents deal with the aftermath of the April 6 fire.
Ownership is resolved that “no one will be homeless” because of the fire, Boian said Tuesday night.
The entire five-story west building of the complex, with 125 units and 134 residents, has been emptied.
Fire alarms, sprinkler and HVAC systems, installed in 1972, will have to be overhauled and upgraded to meet current safety standards, Boian said.
The owner, Heath Orvis, who brought the property in February, will take several measures, according to Boian, to help residents deal with the burden:
• Displaced residents will get a full refund on apartment damage deposits.
• All April rents, prorated to April 6, will be refunded.
• Displaced residents will receive $500 per unit.
Southview management will partially help residents move, supplying packing boxes and labor to get boxes out of the units.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation. Boian said indications are that it is “not suspicious.”
Roba Kribs and Carl Beason just moved into their fifth-floor, two-bedroom apartment in January, in part, to be near Kribs’ daughter and her family.
Kribs spent the better part of a year looking for a place. They settled, in part, on Southview because it was affordable.
Now, the couple has moved in with nearby relatives of Kribs’. The two, however, are determined to find a place of their own.
“Oh, my God, I’ll certainly be looking,” Kribs said. “At least for a temporary place.”
