Troubled North Columbia apartment complex set for demolition, new housing planned
A troubled apartment complex managed by the Columbia Housing Authority where residents have complained of mold, roaches and maintenance problems will be demolished, years after the housing authority first planned to take down the half-century-old dwellings.
The Columbia Housing Authority expects to begin demolishing Latimer Manor in north Columbia May 4 and completing the work by February 2027.
The 200-unit apartment complex will be replaced with 243 new housing units: That includes apartment buildings with 134 total units, 83 senior housing units, and 26 homeownership opportunities, according to a Tuesday presentation from Columbia Housing Authority’s new CEO Jessica Anderson Preston to a Columbia City Council committee.
The last family living at the apartment complex was relocated in November, Preston said.
Currently, the vacant apartment complex is being used by local law enforcement for training exercises.
The May demolition of the building marks the beginning of a long-awaited redevelopment of the site, which sits north of the Prisma Richland Hospital and south of Lorick Park.
Housing Authority officials said in 2021 that Latimer Manor at 100 Lorick Circle would be demolished, and something new would be rebuilt there. The apartments were slated for demolition and redevelopment alongside several others, a plan outlined in the agency’s Vision 2030 plan.
In the years since its demolition was announced, residents have reported poor conditions at the half-century old apartments.
Local housing attorneys in 2023 called conditions at Latimer Manor “untenable and frankly uninhabitable” in a presentation to the housing authority’s board to highlight various concerns residents had reported to them.
“Over the past few months we ... have become made increasingly aware of some untenable and frankly uninhabitable living conditions,” at Latimer Manor and another housing authority property, said Emily Blackshire Giel at that meeting, an attorney who at the time worked for SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center.
She and other housing advocates said they had personally seen mold and roach infestations at the apartments.
The Columbia Housing Authority has been aware of the deteriorating conditions at Latimer Manor and other apartments for years. The agency began a sweeping assessment of all of its properties in 2019, which found at least $250 million in deferred maintenance alone across its various properties. The agency has been gradually replacing and rehabilitating those housing units.
Once Latimer Manor is demolished, the housing authority will begin constructing Candleberry at Colonial Park, a sprawling redevelopment of the site to include new apartments, senior housing, a dog park and more.
The project could be occupied by 2029.
