Carriage House Apartments approved to reopen after 114 residents spent 2 weeks in hotels

PETERSBURG, Va. — City code enforcement officials and a fire marshal arrived at the Carriage House Apartments Friday morning for a re-inspection of the building, which had been red-tagged 17 days ago as unsafe to live in.

A half dozen Petersburg code enforcement officials and a fire marshal drove into the parking lot just before 9 a.m. and walked into the building shortly after for the re-inspection.

A total of 114 residents had been relocated to three area hotels while repairs were made to bring the building back up to code.

John Mason, who lives at Carriage House Apartments, said he is "ready to go home."

"I miss my apartment," Mason said. "All I want them to do is fix the problems. It's as simple as that."

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Long-time resident David Cook said he had high expectations for the re-inspection and placed blame on the city and the building's owners for allowing conditions to deteriorate.

"I hope the city does their job this time," Cook said. "The City Inspector should have never let it get that bad to begin with. I blame the city. I blame the corporation."

Less than three hours after walking in, city code enforcement removed the red tag.

Dave Mullen, attorney for Carriage House Apartments, said the decision was welcome news for residents.

However, while the red tag has been removed from the front door, there is no timeline yet on when residents can return home.

"We expect that to be very soon," Mullen said. "We still have professional contractors on site, who are completing some of the cosmetic work and some of the work that goes beyond what the code requires, because we believe the residents deserve a great place to come home to."

Feed More has continued to support the displaced residents, bringing a truck to the hotels nearly every day to drop off food and frequently providing hot meals as well.

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