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The R.E. Lee Building’s deterioration has forced many tenants to live in substandard conditions

During a volunteering shift last winter at the R.E. Lee Building, Morten Wendelbo helped a resident carry some packages up to her apartment. What he saw there worried him.

“I asked her why her oven was on,” said Wendelbo, a Washington and Lee University student who volunteers regularly with the school’s Campus Kitchens Project. “Putting her oven on 350 degrees and keeping the door open was the only way, she said, the apartment would stay warm enough so she could go to sleep at night.”

Living in less than ideal conditions is not out of the ordinary for many low-income residents at the R.E. Lee Building. Though it provides crucial affordable housing within the city, the 86-year-old building has seen few renovations through the years, meaning residents must deal daily with issues like water damage, crumbling ceilings and deteriorating insulation.

“I am concerned,” Wendelbo said. “From the outside it looks fine … but there are some things to be worried about.”

Owner William McClung said he believes the building meets the residents’ needs.

“Any time that you have a number of people, there are going to be some that are dissatisfied,” he said. “We think we do a good job of providing very affordable housing in a convenient location for the folks that live there.”

McClung owns the building in partnership with W. Lowrie Tucker and Walter Joe Mynes, but he is the only partner who lives locally.

Under Virginia’s inspection code, the owners are not required to make major renovations. They are required only to adhere to the code that existed at the time of construction or the most recent upgrade. Because there have been no major upgrades since the building was converted from a hotel into apartments, McClung is in compliance with the law.

“Though we would like to see the building brought up to code, there is really not anything that the city can do,” said Steve Paulk, Lexington’s code enforcement officer.

A city inspector assesses the building annually, but the past two years have yielded violations no more serious than a burnt-out exit sign.

The building’s deterioration is due to a number of factors. But mostly, it is old. Built in 1924 as the Lexington Hotel, it was renovated two years later when it became the Robert E. Lee Hotel.

Residents say that, while problems are fixed relatively quickly, it is often just a matter of time before the same issues arise again.

“I have a hardwood floor and it gets kind of soggy here and there,” said Jimmy Noonan, who has lived in the building for two years. “So it’s not holding up too well.”

Mark Groah, who has lived in the building for 19 years, said his floor has needed repair at least once a year.

“The living room they fix every year and it busts [after] every snow or rain,” he said.

While some residents are unhappy with the conditions of their apartments, they acknowledge that there are few affordable housing options within the city. Rent in the R.E. Lee Building is generally between $300 and $400 a month including utilities.

“I have a small room,” said Noonan. “But I like it and it’s cheap.”

McClung said any tenant unhappy with his or her apartment can move to another.

“If somebody has a particular problem, there is always a vacant apartment to move them in to,” he said. “[They] can make that move any day.”

There are currently 42 residents in the R.E. Lee Building. But McClung said there have always been vacant apartments.

The building’s condition can be especially trying for residents with disabilities. Both Wendelbo and fellow Campus Kitchens volunteer Joe Landry recalled an instance where the six-story building’s elevator broke, stranding disabled residents in their apartments.

The building used to house only disabled tenants because of a contract with the Virginia Housing Development Authority that paid McClung directly as a rent subsidy. However, Vicky Agnor, director of Rockbridge County’s rental assistance program, said resident complaints and a string of federal inspection violations resulted in the termination of that contract in 2006. The residents were given vouchers and the option of staying or moving out, and the R.E. Lee Building became available to citizens who did not receive rental assistance. The remaining 18 people who do receive assistance are now subsidized directly, providing them the opportunity to find other housing if they want to.

“There were a lot of problems with the Robert E. Lee as far as our inspections,” Agnor said. “There was a lot of chipping, peeling, bubbling-looking paint, and that appeared to be coming from some sort of moisture in the walls.”

McClung said he cooperated fully with VHDA’s inspectors and does not know why the contract was pulled.

“We hired two contractors and repainted the interior of the building, spent $40,000 repainting the interior, and 30 days after that we received notice that they were canceling the program for the whole building,” he said. “There was nothing that they asked us to do that we didn’t do.”

But Agnor said McClung was aware of the building’s inspection violations and why the contract was terminated. One of the owners walked through the building with a VHDA inspector, she said. Since 2006, though, Agnor said, conditions have improved.

“The most pressing issue was the paint,” she said. “You very seldom see that now … . We might find an apartment when we do our annual inspection that fails, but we don’t get complaints like we did in the beginning.”

VHDA inspects only the apartments occupied by voucher recipients. And though Wendelbo, who has become close with many of the residents, still worries for their well-being, he said there are few alternatives.