City officials, advocates and tenants of the Willows Apartments in New Orleans East cheered in March when the long-neglected complex was sold to a new owner who vowed to make big changes to improve the property.
But the cleanup and gut renovations come with a catch, residents learned last month. To do the work on the 263-unit complex off the Interstate-10 Service Road near Crowder Blvd., residents are required to vacate the property for an estimated two years.
On Wednesday, with one day to go before the June 18 deadline to move out, many units were empty with doors boarded up. But in other parts of the complex residents appeared to still be living on the site, coming and going from the buildings, some with busted windows and siding tainted with mildew…