A year’s wait set for Rosewood, Cedarwood eviction trial

Last edited 2:08 p.m., May 4, 2025 [Editor's note: Additional information has been added]

It will be nearly a year before a case brought by the tenants of two low-income housing developments will go to trial.

A scheduling teleconference was held April 29 for counsel in the case of Ramona Teeter et al. v. Zimmerman Properties LLC et al.

The plaintiffs seek to halt their eviction from developments formerly known as Rosewood Estates and Cedarwood Terrace as those housing facilities are targeted to exit the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program to shift to an upscale senior housing development.

A nine-day jury trial was set in the teleconference. It is scheduled to begin on April 26, 2027, with an alternate trial setting of Aug. 23, 2027. Attorneys were advised to keep both dates clear for a trial.

Through the entities Cedarwood Terrace LLC and 604-1120 Sunset LLC, developers Mitchell and Amanda Jenkins purchased the properties and renamed them the Villas on Sunset, at 604-1120 E. Sunset St., and Pickwick Place, at 2244 N. Cedarwood Lane.

At a hearing on March 30 before Judge Joshua Christensen of the 31st Judicial Circuit Court, some residents described their panic at learning they would have to leave their homes while claiming they did not receive the legally required notice that their units would move out of the federal LIHTC program.

Mitchell Jenkins testified that he performed due diligence before making the purchase and was advised that the property was released from the program.

In the March hearing, Jenkins testified that the loan was structured to sustain negative cash flow for the property during the decontrol period as it transitions from LIHTC to market-rate housing, but those funds will be exhausted by August of this year. He said if the properties were to remain in low-income housing, he would become insolvent and file bankruptcy.

The plaintiffs are being represented pro bono by the Kansas City-based nonprofit Heartland Center for Jobs and Justice.

Asked by email whether the residents would be permitted to stay in their homes through the jury trial, Heartland Center attorneys replied, “Trial is scheduled for April or August of 2027, but tenants continue to wait for a decision from the court to determine their housing situation between now and the trial date."