Cumberland County Commissioners: RHA’s Company’s 25 years of free rent is over

Oct. 05--A quarter of a century after it opened, the company operating a county-owned group home in Fayetteville is finally paying rent.

What, if anything, it will be asked to pay for its rent-free years isn't clear.

The county Board of Commissioners is set to approve a short-term lease Monday for RHA Management Services for the 3,000-square-foot group home on Old Wilmington Road that has been privately operated since it was built in 1989. County leaders did not know the county owned it until last month.

"We're trying to get this immediate issue resolved," County Attorney Rick Moorefield told commissioners Thursday. "That's all we're trying to do."

The market-rate lease, which if approved will be effective Oct. 1, is for $3,029 per month. The building has been appraised at $215,000. RHA -- along with its parent company, Asheville-based nonprofit North Carolina MR Inc. -- is interested in buying it at that price, said Jeffery Brown, the county's engineering and infrastructure director. The four-month lease will give the company time to complete its due diligence, Brown said.

Brown discovered the county owned the property when he compared his list of county-owned buildings with tax records. Commissioner Jimmy Keefe was annoyed Thursday at the prospect of dismissing the years the home paid no rent.

"You're giving a 25 year pass," he said.

Moorefield said that's not the case.

"Let's take it one step at a time," he said. "I can assure you we haven't overlooked those issues."

He did not elaborate.

Scott Little, housing and asset manager for RHA, said Friday that the company has operated the home for many years but that he didn't know if another company was there before.

"The only thing I can tell you is that we operated that home under contract with the local mental health folks," he said. "We covered the insurance on the home, so that was taken care of."

Until 2013, a county agency managed local mental health care. But state reforms dismantled that office and a Durham-based Alliance now oversees all publicly funded care. That leaves the provenance of the home unclear.

"This is an immediate fix," Moorefield said. "We've stopped the bleeding. Now we'll look at the sickness."

Monday's meeting is at 9 a.m. in Room 118 of the Cumberland County Courthouse.

Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at phillipsg@fayobserver.com or 486-3596.

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