Wait continues for 2016 flood victims; improper liens placed on RISE WV home sites

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Geoff Cross lost his mobile home when the Elk River left its banks on June 23, 2016.

The flood killed 23 people and destroyed or damaged hundreds of residences. Since then, Cross has been living in a camper across the street from his old address, waiting to be made whole again.

"I've been in this camper 63 months," Cross said. "I'm tired of waiting. They're taking too long to get that house finished. They told me I would be in before the cold weather. If it gets colder than this I don't want to be in this area. I'm tired of waiting."

Because federal rules limit the height of replacement mobile homes, Cross' new house is still under construction. But recently he received an unpleasant surprise in the mail.

84 Lumber had placed a lien on his home and several others which had been affected by the flood because the company had not been paid thousands of dollars for supplies used in those builds.

"84 Lumber corporate in Pennsylvania told me that I owed under $45,000 in materials," Cross said. "So they put a lien on my property to get that money. I guess scare me. My caseworker, Christina Jones, told me not to worry about it, that since this is a federally funded program that I don't have to pay nothing on it."

Cross said the notification led to a lot of stress.

"For about three nights no sleep, a lot of stress, more stress," Cross said. "I mean, I've been under a lot of stress all these months and I'm, I'm just tired of it. I'm tired of waiting."

Thompson Construction Group of Sumter, South Carolina, is a private company which got involved very early in the recovery effort in West Virginia. While Thompson uses subcontractors, the West Virginia Department of Commerce said it is ultimately responsible to see that bills are paid.

"Our contract is with Thompson Construction," Secretary of Commerce Ed Gaunch said. "They're the construction manager. Then Thompson hires subcontractors and they hire sub subs, but our relationship is with Thompson. Our only concern is for those families impacted by these letters that they've received. We've been in touch with all of those people to assure them that there's no, their home is not in jeopardy. That the work's been done on it is not in jeopardy, and Thompson on the other hand, we're encouraging to do whatever's necessary to resolve the issue."

Eyewitness News reached out to Thompson Construction Group to ask about the unpaid bills, but our calls were not returned.

"Our contract's with Thompson and we pay Thompson for the work that's done, either by them or their subs," Gaunch said. "And the dispute arose somewhere below Thompson. What we do know is that our clients are the people we're responsible to and those are the people that we want to make sure are content that they live in a place that has no lien against it."

After a rocky start, Rise West Virginia finally started fulfilling its promise two years after its creation when the West Virginia National Guard was given control.

To date, the program has built 352 houses with 22 under construction and only 10 still awaiting final approval.

"For a program like this, almost a $150 million dollars that kind of stumbled out of the gate, that's back on track, that's in really good stead with HUD right now and we're gonna finish it well in advance of the deadline they've given us," Gaunch said.

However, while Geoff Cross was relieved to find out the lien on his home won't impact its construction or his ownership, he's still looking across the street at an unfinished structure as he lives through yet another West Virginia winter without a permanent roof over his head.

"It will be nice to have someplace that the bathroom is in the same place," Cross said. "It will be nice to have heat. It will be nice to have a kitchen that I can actually cook. I'm a diabetic and I haven't been able to eat right for five years because the stress, because of not being able to cook."

He said right now he doesn't even have a bathroom to call his own.

"The porta-potty across the road," Cross said. "Sometimes I can't make it. I've got a five-gallon bucket just for that case."

A bucket Cross says he's hopeful he's only a few weeks away from never using again.