East Charlotte Families Facing Eviction Because of Apartment Renovations

CHARLOTTE, NC – Several families in East Charlotte are scrambling to find a new place to live.

Residents at the Oakhurst Apartments, formerly known as Brittany Woods, say they were stunned to find eviction notices on their doors this week.
“It’s just horrible. It really is,” says resident Charmaine Jones.

Jones and her husband Mark are packing their boxes.

The have until the end of October to move out “(They’re) uprooting everybody from the community, who lives in the community and it’s not right,” Mark Jones says.

The Jones’s showed WCCB Charlotte a notice they got from their property manager Monday.

It says “we are preparing to make significant improvements..” and “it cannot be done safely with residents living on the property.”

Charmaine says they’ve already started looking, but it’s hard to find a place because she’s on dialysis and has several health problems.

“We have to get something on the first floor, because I’m disabled and I can’t walk up stairs,” she explains.

Though the notice says current residents will get first priority to return after the renovations, the Jones’s fear the complex will raise their rent.

They say it’s a symptom of a city that needs more affordable housing.

“For people who might not have college degrees or have good jobs, at least people who can survive,” Mark says.

The Jones’s are now hoping for more time to find a new place to live.

“It’s just so unfortunate that we have to go through this. And there’s no one, they’re not considerate or caring about what we have to go through,” Mark says.

WCCB Charlotte called the phone number for the property manager found on the eviction notice, but the person who answered said they were at a central leasing office and couldn’t answer our questions.