{"id":341675,"date":"2026-07-16T03:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341675\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T03:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:28:08","slug":"some-villa-del-sol-residents-return-home-nearly-2-years-after-structural-damage-forced-evacuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341675\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Villa Del Sol residents return home nearly 2 years after structural damage forced evacuation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Villa Del Sol residents in St. Lucie County told WPTV they\u2019re able to return home after nearly two years of being displaced from their condos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Residents told WPTV they were notified last month they could return to their condos, after an inspection in August 2024 found structural damage<\/a> in buildings 3, 4, and 5, which were deemed unsafe.<\/p>\n

WATCH OUR REPORT:<\/p>\n

Katie Johnson was the first to share to WPTV that residents had been told they could come back.<\/p>\n

“I almost didn’t believe it. It was like too good to be true,” Katie said.<\/p>\n

WPTV received emails sent to residents from the Board of Directors telling them they could return.<\/p>\n

WPTV also obtained a letter from engineers sent to St. Lucie County’s Building Department requesting they lift occupancy restrictions following their special inspection.<\/p>\n

Katie described the work still underway at the property.<\/p>\n

“They’re still moving the dirt back under the buildings,” she said.<\/p>\n

She also reflected on the effort it takes to bring residents home.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard work,” Katie said.<\/p>\n

Jensen Beach<\/p>\n

‘The goal is to be made whole’: Villa Del Sol Condo residents sue board<\/p>\n

Robert Segedin took WPTV inside his family’s home, excited to return \u2014 but was thinking about those who cannot.<\/p>\n

“Their hearts were broken. They wanted to spend the rest of their lives here,” Segedin said.<\/p>\n

Eric Johnson is among those not coming back. He was one of the first residents<\/a> WPTV met at Villa Del Sol, and is now living in Georgia. <\/p>\n

“It’s been a terrible two years,” he said.<\/p>\n

Eric said the financial toll has been severe.<\/p>\n

“We pretty much had to drain out all our savings accounts, all our 401ks just trying to make ends meet while this was going on,\u201d Eric said.<\/p>\n

Jensen Beach<\/p>\n

Villa Del Sol condo owners say ‘nobody wants to spend any more money’ on repairs<\/p>\n

He is filing for bankruptcy and filing his condo for foreclosure.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a real struggle. I’d like to say that we are finally starting to climb out of it, but it still feels like we’re kind of still falling and waiting to start climbing back up,” Eric said. <\/p>\n

Katie Johnson said she is thinking of neighbors, like Eric Johnson, who cannot return.<\/p>\n

“I just feel so bad that some were hit harder than others with the situation,” Katie Johnson said.<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Villa Del Sol residents in St. Lucie County told WPTV they\u2019re able to return home after nearly two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-341675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}