Fire victims rally for security deposits
{Keith Walker/News & Messenger}
Ricardo Juarez, right, and Reyna Arciles hold a press conference Monday at the Friendship Place Apartments, where a fire displaced roughly 45 people last month. The residents want their security deposits refunded.
Most of the people who were put out of their homes by fire last month at the Friendship Place Apartments in Woodbridge can’t find places to live.
They might be better off if they could get their security deposits back, but the deposits are slow in coming.
Christina Gomez, one of the residents who was displaced by an accidental fire June 26 at 14400 Gemstone Drive, said families can’t get a straight answer from the apartment complex management.
“They say they don’t know what is going to happen — that the insurance needs to give them an answer — they haven’t really concluded exactly what is going to happen,” Gomez said.
The fire started on the first floor of one of the apartment buildings and spread to seven units, displacing about 45 people. At least one family was forced to jump to safety.
Lina Roldan manages the complex and said she has been talking to many of the people who were displaced and she’s told them all the same thing.
“I’ve been telling them that we’re going to give them their security deposits back,” Roldan said. “By law we’ve got to process the security deposit back by 30 to 45 days.”
The apartment complex paid for the displaced residents to stay for three nights at the Rodeway Inn in Woodbridge, Roldan said.
The Prince William Chapter of the American Red Cross paid for a few nights, and several area churches including St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Lake Ridge, Manassas Mosque, Manassas AME, Manassas Church of the Brethren, St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle and the Bull Run Unitarian Universalist Church in Manassas paid for a few more nights, said John Steinbach of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, which organized a rally at the apartment complex Monday.
“It’s obvious they’re going to get their deposits back, but they need them now. That’s the crux of the issue,” Steinbach said.
The organization, led by Ricardo Juarez, rallied about a dozen of the displaced residents Monday to present a letter asking the apartment complex owner, Leo Cummings, to quickly return the deposits.
The residents took the letter to the management office where they signed it, forming what they called the Friendship Place Tenants Association.
The management office is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so there was no one present to whom they could deliver the letter, which also asked Cummings to provide references for those who were displaced.
The letter further asked that Cummings “make a good faith effort to offer financial compensation for the belongings lost in the fire as well as the trauma and hardship the tenants have faced since the fire.”
Roldan said she had done as much as she could to help the tenants.
She went to other apartment complexes and tried to find places for many of them, but encountered difficulty.
“I went personally to a couple of places, but they’re not qualified because of their income and credit,” Roldan said. “We’re trying to help these people because we understand.”
Oscar Moreira, is staying at the Rodeway Inn with his 76-year-old mother, Maria Moreira, and admitted to having poor credit that’s hampering his efforts to find a new place to live.
“We don’t have any place to go,” the 34-year-old Moreira said.
Roldan said it will take three to six months to rebuild the destroyed apartments.
Teresita Jacinto, of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, asked for help from the community.
“We’re appealing to the community to respond, to open their doors to one of these families,” she said at a press conference after the letter signing.
Jacinto said people who wish to help may call and leave a message at 703-369-7427.
Alan Scott, the manager of the Rodeway Inn, is contributing as much as he can.
“We tried to help them out with some rates and make sure they have a refrigerator and a microwave so they don’t have to go out and buy food everyday,” Scott said. “We’re just trying to do the right thing.”
Scott said he’ll try to keep things going as long as he can.
“We’ll work with the families and we’ll work with everybody that’s helping them out. We’re just doing our part on our end,” he said.
Jacinto said the displaced families would be homeless today if not for such help. “We ask that the community continue to support us,” she said.
Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.
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Reader Reactions
zcx-If the native americans came here across the land bridge 10,000 years ago, there was no one here before them, so that would be called “migration” not immigration.
Sorry Phdee you are the racist blacks were taken against their will which means they are not illegal. Incidentally the Indians also came here illegally across the land bridge from Asia over 10000 years ago, DNA has pretty much confirmed that. I love hoe phdee twists words most of us are fighting against illegal immigration and he/she/it keeps claiming that we are fighting legal immigration. I have a family member who is a legal immigrant, a big difference but not in phdee’s mind. Racist against mindsets like phdee’s that’s for certain. Blacks, Spanish, and Mexicans murdered Indians too, does that also not make them racist as well? PWC sure does still have hatemongers especially Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi’s, Mecha, MS-13, La Raza. There is no denying those groups record of hatred, crime, murder, you name it. LOL Chris Cummings
I see racist and anti immigration hatemonger Cummings is now practicing law and givingt/interpreting the law. Chris you hatemonger, what law school did you attend? Member of a legal bar? Got a license to practice?
What a bunch of local losers. And to think: the US waa founded by illegal immigrants who invaded N. american, murdered the native Indians, brought in slaves (more illegals), and in the Declaration of Independence called the Indians “merciless Indian savages”.
Sure sounds ;ile PWC still has the same crowd of hatemongers.
zcxnissan If they are illegals the person responsible for housing these illegals better keep those security deposits so they can pay the finds they may have to pay down the road. lol
Oh and I love the “stop abuse of the tenants"sign in the pic, I say that the managment went above and beyond helping these people find temporary housing and paid for a few days at a hotel, man what abuser’s!!! Let me ask this, would they be treated like this if their apartment burned down in Mexico?? No they wouldnt, so people say thank you and stop trying to free load and get something for nothing!!!!
I was ok with this whole thing up to the point when they said the letter asked the apartment oners to reimburse the tenants for their belongings lost in the fire! they have no duty to pay for anything lost in the fire, that is what renters inssurance is for, once again people trying to free load off of others. I say give them their security deposits back and let them head up or down the road!!
By law they should have their security deposits back no later then August 10th, however if they are illegal they really should never have been allowed housing in the first place, so then again the apartment complex manager doesn’t really have to give it back, does he??? Remember what the law says about housing and providing housing for illegals????
mexicans without frontiers omitted their contributions,again. Mr.Steinbach,collect money from your members,pay to house the displaced,and when the 45 days are up,they will be home.
Teresita Jacinto needs to take her Mexicanos Sin Fronteras south of the border. Legal immigrants would like some help too will Mexicanos Sin Fronteras help us find jobs or continue to steal them???? LOL Chris Cummings
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