Two years after Wilma, many still without condos

One woman, 79, has moved seven times.

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two years after Hurricane Wilma destroyed their condos, some South Florida owners are still waiting to go home.

Many must pay rent as well as their mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance and special assessments for repairs on a place they can only dream of living in again.

No one agency tracks the number of homes left uninhabitable since Wilma struck Oct. 24, 2005.

But building officials say there are dozens, predominantly in Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Tamarac and at Kings Point west of Delray Beach.

Why are the repairs taking so long? In some cases, condo boards have run out of money, are waiting for insurance or have had problems with contractors.

Some boards have yet to levy special assessments; in other associations, owners have stopped paying.

Regardless of the reasons, life has not returned to normal for some Wilma victims. Here are their stories:

Losing his Sunrise three-bedroom town home was bad enough, but watching his marriage fall apart because of it was worse. Hubert Gibson, 41, and his wife, Shannon, have lived apart for much of the past two years. He sleeps on a living room couch at a friend’s house. His wife and 8-year-old son are living with a woman his mom knows.

“This has taken a definite toll on my marriage,” said Gibson, a customer service agent for Delta Airlines.

After Wilma blew the roof off the home they bought for $139,000 in 2003, the Gibsons rented an apartment. But it got too expensive so they moved in with friends.

“It’s difficult going through all of this and then to have my son keep asking, ‘Daddy, when am I coming back to live in our house?’ makes it worse.”

Moving seven times in two years at 79 years old is debilitating. Just ask Florence “Kitty” Ford, who rents a one-bedroom condo in the same Hawaiian Gardens complex in Lauderdale Lakes where her damaged condo sits.

The board hired a new contractor Oct. 12 and Ford should be back home in a few months.

“There were so many people looking for places to rent I could only get a place for a month or two months,” she said.

“Going through this makes you just want to die. I’m still very depressed.”

Each month, Ford, a widow, pays $750 for rent, $200 for storage, and $300 in condo maintenance and fees. Her mortgage is paid after 18 years at the 55-plus sprawling complex.

She lives on $1,300 a month in Social Security and must dip into her savings every month to pay the bills.

“All I’ve got left is my TV,” she said between sobs.

Every day, Leonard Biondo stops by his ruined Sunrise condo to get his mail.

At 49, Biondo said, his life feels like it’s been on hold for two years.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “You don’t want to buy anything or do anything or go anywhere. You try to put money away. Your life is just at a standstill.”

Biondo is single and works as a waiter. He has lived in the upstairs condo at Origins of Welleby since 1986.

He pays $550 a month to rent a room in a double-wide trailer in Lauderhill. He said he would have rented an apartment had he known repairs on his condo would take so long.

“I guess you take it for granted when you can just go home every day until it’s taken away from you like that,” Biondo said.

When Sandra Covin moved into Kings Point in Delray Beach six years ago, she spent about $15,000 on renovations.

The remodeling bug bit again six months before Wilma struck and the retired executive finished $30,000 worth of improvements for such things as higher ceilings, crown molding and wood floors.

She shudders at what it will cost to redo her place.

“This is my retirement and that’s why I’m stuck. Where am I going to go? I’ve used up my financial resources,” said Covin, 70, who pays $850 for rent, $343 for condo maintenance and $170 for storage. She said she already paid a $1,700 assessment for repairs.

If she isn’t home by the end of the year, Covin said, she may walk away from her condo.

“It’s cheaper for me to rent at Kings Point than to fix it up and pay the maintenance,” she said.

Single mom Marjorie Norval is facing foreclosure on the two-bedroom condo she bought at Stonebridge Gardens in Lauderhill just two months prior to Wilma.

Norval, 31, has fallen two months’ behind on her mortgage, maintenance and special assessment.

She said she can’t afford the monthly mortgage since it ballooned in September to $900 from $691 because the adjustable rate went up. She said she also owes a $444 special assessment and $888 in fees.

Norval pays her mother $400 a month to share a bedroom in the Pompano Beach home where she grew up with her 11-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.

“I’m ready to give up and sell this at a loss,” said Norval, who paid $109,000 for the first home she’s owned.

Repairs have mostly languished as condo boards fight with insurance companies over payouts.

“My whole plan was to purchase property and keep it for two years and then buy a bigger place,” she said. “I’ve just been going backward ever since.”

Losing her condo was bad. Then she learned she had cancer.

About the only good thing that has happened to 28-year-old Teri Marriage since Wilma hit was meeting her fiancé.

Their wedding is set for March and they hope to be out of her parent’s house and into her Sunrise condo by then.

Ironically, Marriage is a project coordinator for a construction company. She spends her days helping other people get their buildings done.

“My boss keeps telling me as soon as you’re ready, we’re coming in to fix this place,” said Marriage. “I can’t wait to redo it again.”

She and fiancé Ehren Kuespert moved in with her parents because they can’t afford to rent while paying $900 a month for her condo.

“I guess I have more of a positive outlook on things than most people after everything I’ve been through,” said Marriage, who was diagnosed with cancer in February.