Columbia senior has lived in flood-damaged home for 7 years. The city still hasn’t helped
Eighty-one-year-old Wilburt Keitt’s Columbia home has always been a safe haven for her family.
Since she moved there in the 1970s, she’s hosted countless birthday parties, Thanksgiving dinners and Easter Sundays. It’s where her six children and 20 plus grandchildren gather to hang out with their cousins or grab a bite to eat.
But since 2015, the Keitt residence hasn’t felt the same. Historic flooding in October of that year damaged her roof and led to a slew of problems that have only gotten worse over time. Water pours into the house when it rains, causing mold to build up. The ceiling is caving in and the heat no longer works.
Despite her relatives’ pleas, Keitt refuses to leave. She’s still hoping the city of Columbia will fulfill its promise to rebuild her home through a federally-funded disaster relief program.
The city received a $26.15 million grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to help with disaster relief. Around $13.5 million was to be put toward repairing homes for low-income residents.
Columbia Community Development Director Gloria Saeed said that’s enough to fix around 71 homes. But after six years, work has been completed on just 21 homes.
While applicants like Keitt have been left in the dark, the city’s flood program has fallen into disarray.
The State reviewed three years of internal communications between city officials as well as audits from HUD. The documents say the city provided poor oversight of a contractor hired to administer the program.
This, along with a host of other mistakes, has led to delays and cast doubt on whether those accepted in the program who are still waiting will ever have their homes repaired.
Keitt’s story, like many others, began when she applied to the program in 2017. After being accepted, she signed a contract that initially included an extensive list of repairs the city agreed to fund. She was told that construction would start in May 2018.
As the months passed, Keitt’s anticipation built. But when she reached out for an update toward the end of April 2018, she was told that the city was still searching for a contractor.
Two years ago, the city said rather than repairing the home, the damage was so extensive they would build her a new home.
Keitt said she once trusted the city. Now, after years of getting her hopes up only to be let down, she has grown skeptical.
“They lie so much that I don’t have...confidence and faith in it,” she said.
Keitt said the city has delayed the expected construction date at least three times since 2017, often without warning or explanation. One time the city had her look for temporary housing as the work was about to begin, only to call off construction at the last minute.
She’s gone through three different caseworkers, each of whom have been harder to reach than the previous one, she said. Even when she is able to get in contact with the people running the program, she said it can be difficult to get a straight answer.
Last month, a group of city employees came to inspect her house for what she said was at least the fifth time but seemed like the millionth. When she asked if construction would start soon, they told her they couldn’t give her a date because they were still looking for a contractor.
Saeed, the community development director, told The State that the city plans to award the contract to re-build Keitt’s home by the second quarter of 2022. Once a permit is obtained, it should take around 90 construction days to complete the project.
“Disaster recovery rehabilitation and demolition/rebuild activities are very complex,” Saeed said.
Bobbie Keitt, Wilburt’s daughter, was also accepted into the flood relief program. Workers completed minor repairs on her home in 2019. She said the fact that the city could fix her home while leaving her elderly mother to live in deplorable conditions showed how out of whack the program’s priorities are.
“They don’t care about the elderly and they don’t care about the poor,” she said ”They just do what they want to do for who they want to do it for.”
Since the flood, Wilburt Keitt has gotten several offers to sell her home. She said she’s never once considered it. For her, the house is more than just a place to lay her head. It’s a point of pride and a symbol of her independence.
Before she retired, the octogenarian spent 19 years working at Columbia’s Baptist Hospital — now Prisma Health Baptist — to support her family. She has become a fixture in her neighborhood and is known for offering a warm meal to anyone who needs it. She prides herself on always paying her tithes and her taxes.
At this stage in her life, she said all she wants is to enjoy the fruits of her labor, but it feels like the city has deprived her of that.
“I treat everybody right,” she said. “I’m not asking for much. Just let me be warm. Don’t let the water rain on me.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 10:07 AM.
