COLUMBUS – Former tenants of the troubled Latitude Five 25 Apartments will receive $1.5 million as a settlement from an insurance claim stemming from unlivable conditions at the East Side complex that resulted in residents being forced to leave their homes on Christmas morning in 2022.
Under an agreement approved in Franklin County Environmental Court insurance proceeds will be transferred to a fund overseen by Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, which will then be distributed to former tenants of the towers, Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein announced Wednesday.
The agreement is between the city, the mortgage lender that financed the 2021 purchase of the towers by Paxe Latitude LP, and Legal Aid, which represented the former tenants.
“This agreement is a major next step to seeing money put back in the pockets of tenants and sends a clear message that bad landlords operating unsafe, unsanitary properties in the city of Columbus will be held accountable for deplorable living conditions,” Klein said.
“We’re grateful to the city, county and Lument for their commitment to ensuring that families who were evacuated on Christmas Day will receive some compensation for what they’ve been through,” Melissa Benson, senior managing attorney of the housing team at Legal Aid, said. “While this certainly doesn’t undo the harm done, it is a step towards making things right for tenants who lost their homes and all of their possessions due to a bad-acting landlord,.”
The complex experienced “catastrophic” damage between Dec. 22 and 25, 2022, due to plumbing and other issues, causing residents to flee the building, leaving behind possessions they have been unable to recover.