Instead, Steven Chastain was a known scam artist, according to law enforcement authorities.

Chastain told Williams he could get the job done for $147,000. The couple said yes, took out a hefty loan and cut him the first of a series of checks so he would get to work. It was only months later, after the living room had been stripped from floor to ceiling that they realized something was wrong.

Chastain, they learned, hadn’t even gotten a permit from the city. And with $60,000 of their money in his pocket, he was gone — leaving a bare-bones structure after removing the sheetrock, insulation and ceiling.

Dorothy and George Williams were not the first people whose lives were upended after they signed a contract with Chastain, who had been on the run from state authorities for years before recently facing a guilty conviction for felony theft by deception and theft by conversion in Gwinnett County.

State and local authorities have documented instances in which Chastain has taken advantage of homeowners looking to repair damage from calamities of all kinds — severe storms to house fires — often posing as a public adjuster to pocket homeowner’s insurance funds.

The AJC reached out to Chastain and his attorney, Tracy Drake, multiple times by email requesting comment or a statement regarding the accusations and cases against Chastain. None of those messages were returned.

Law enforcement who track down scam artists say they prey on the elderly. And more often than not, there are few places for victims to turn.

The Williams couple has been left with that exact reality: there is not much that can be done to recoup their finances. The damage to their house was so great, even local nonprofits said the money needed to restore it is beyond their budgets.

As Dorothy Williams walked slowly through the exposed support beams, she said she doesn’t even recognize her home of four decades.

“I’m so tired,” Dorothy Williams said. “This has been going on for three years, that’s just too long to be out of my house. I’ve been crying so much I can’t cry anymore.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

While the outside of the Williams’ house on Fontaine Ave may not draw a second glance, the inside is shocking.

There are no walls dividing rooms, only wooden frames that hint at what the home looked like before it was stripped. Insulation, recently installed by a nonprofit, is the only barrier to the outside, but it wasn’t there last winter when temperatures consistently dropped below freezing.

In a room to the right of the front door, two single air mattresses are covered in thin sheets and towels next to a mini fridge with just a few contents.

Atlanta News First plays on a small T.V., giving off the only light in what Dorothy and Greg use as their bedroom. Dorothy points to various items strewn about the floor — a box fan for when the house gets too hot, a recently donated stove in an otherwise empty kitchen. And a bedpan, since the house is without plumbing or running water.

The couple has to walk a few blocks to the neighborhood Kroger — where Dorothy Williams used to work years ago — to use a bathroom. And they only get to shower when they drive to a relative’s house in Henry County.

“I’ve been sick twice in the hospital because of this — they said it’s because of stress,” she said. “You aren’t in your own bed, you can’t use the bathroom, you can’t take a bath.”

In September, the 73-year-old was rushed to Grady Hospital with a blood clot in her leg. Dorothy Williams said doctors warned her about the amount of stress she was under and prescribed an array of blood pressure medicine.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

But Dorothy and George don’t like making the nearly hour-long drive to Henry County to stay with her daughter. Even more than that, they don’t like leaving the house empty.

A group of local Maynard Jackson High School teenagers who keep an eye on the house for the elderly couple have chased off squatters before.

A history of deception

Chastain has a history of scamming homeowners out of tens of thousands of dollars.

His reputation for the scheme is so profound that one Georgia state agency referred to him as “a thorn in our side for quite some time.”

In March 2020, Georgia’s Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner announced Chastain was charged with swindling an Albany business owner out of roughly $217,000. At the time, he worked as a public adjuster and was accused of pocketing his client’s insurance money after Hurricane Michael.

In June 2020, Chastain was arrested by special agents with the criminal division of the state insurance and fire commissioner’s office on additional charges in Dougherty and Cobb counties.

While Chastain hasn’t been charged in the Williams’ case, state authorities asked an AJC reporter for Williams’ contact information after the reporter inquired about Chastain. A family member later told the AJC that they were in touch with investigators and provided relevant documentation.

And just this year in Gwinnett County, Chastain was found guilty by a jury of two counts of theft by conversion and four counts of theft by deception after stealing the insurance funds of a couple who lost their home in a 2019 fire.

“This man was licensed to uphold the public trust of people experiencing some of the worst times in their lives,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in a statement. “Instead, he used his position to prey on these victims and line his own pockets.”

In March, the jury found Chastain stole upwards of $107,000 from the victims and was sentenced to serve 10 years — the first three in confinement. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Chastain is currently serving his sentence in state prison in Butts County.

State investigators confirmed that Chastain is also under investigation in Cobb County.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

No where to turn

The Gwinnett County case details how Chastain introduced desperate homeowners to a home restoration company named HomeSmart Services.

It’s the same company that Dorothy and George Williams contracted to repair their south Atlanta home. Dorothy sent email after email to Michele A. Pierre, listed as the CEO of HomeSmart Services, begging for help.

“It appears it may be impossible to move forward with this almost 1-year-delayed simple single family home renovation project,” Dorothy wrote in September 2022. “I would like to STOP all work on this project and end all expenses today.”

“I am not good at this contract stuff, and I hoped I was in good hands with your company,” she wrote again later that month when requesting a meeting with Chastain and the company.

After, Chastain offered a final accounting tally, proposing to refund the Williams’ $11,000 after construction costs and a 25% cancellation fee, according to a letter on Dorothy’s behalf from Atlanta Legal Aid.

Pierre, HomeSmart Services CEO, did not respond to messages sent to her requesting comment on the company’s interactions with the Williams’ family. Both the email and phone number listed for the company are no longer active.

Over the past three years, since their home was destroyed, the couple has tried numerous avenues to get their money back.

Dorothy had visited City Hall in May and testified during public comment at City Council about her experience.

As a result, a top aide for the mayor met with the couple and connected them to HouseProud, a nonprofit organization that helps low income senior residents with home repairs in an effort to keep them from being displaced.

An Atlanta Legal Aid lawyer worked to strike a deal with HomeSmart Services to get at least $36,000 back for the couple with no success. The couple also filed a police report and went through an arbitration process with the Better Business Bureau.

“I took every dime of my money to try as hard as I can to get back into my house,” Dorothy said. “I cashed in my insurance policy and they gave me $20,000 — I took that and put it in here. I put everything I have into this house and I still can’t live here.”

In her police report filed in April 2023, Dorothy said she didn’t want another person to be taken advantage of as she was.

“I would like him arrested before he commits another criminal act of theft against another elderly (70-year-old) person,” the report reads.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Preying on faith

As Cameron Franklin walks through the house, he can only imagine how it looked during his childhood.

“All the memories in here — my twin brother and I — since fifth grade all the way to my senior year we were here sharing a room,” Franklin, Dorothy’s grandson, said. “We walked to the school bus right there.”

Franklin and his siblings now take turns checking in on their grandparents after work. They try to softly encourage them to spend more time at their mother’s house in Henry County, but are unsuccessful. Dorothy doesn’t want to abandon her home.

“I think it’s just unfair that people take advantage of other people like that here in the city,” Franklin said. “I think we should do a better job protecting our senior citizens in Atlanta.”

Lisa Jones, with HouseProud, received a call from the mayor’s office asking if her organization could help the Williams. Since, she chats with Dorothy frequently and visits the home to help facilitate repairs.

Jones called the Williams’ situation “tragic,” but also exceedingly common as Atlanta’s neighborhoods become more developed.

“When people see seniors, low-income or legacy homeowners in a home, they see dollar signs,” she said.

Jones said that, usually, construction scammers — who are not licensed or registered with the state — just do shoddy work. But, in the Williams’ case, their house was rendered unlivable thousands of dollars later.

“It’s a shell of a home,” she said. “She doesn’t have good access to running water, because the guy basically took the house apart, took her money and never put it back. He would have been better just taking her money and not leaving her in this horrible situation.”

The nonprofit’s executive director describes con-artist contractors as individuals who are “charismatic and friendly,” who usually drive nice cars and offer flashy fliers and pictures of their work. In extreme cases, like that of the Williams’ family, they even play on the victim’s beliefs.

“A lot of our homeowners are very religious or spiritual, really wonderful, loving people,” she said, adding that scam artists play on that faith. “It’s so cruel.”

Credit: Courtesy of Dorothy Williams

Credit: Courtesy of Dorothy Williams

HouseProud has been able to line the Williams’ home with insulation and is putting additional funds into finishing the bedroom, so the couple at least has a place to sleep comfortably at night. But redoing the whole house is beyond its resources.

“When seniors go out on their own, they don’t have anything in writing that protects them — so this person is gone with half their money, and they have no recourse,” she said. “It’s hard to take somebody to court when you have a cell phone number that they no longer have and their website is down.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Few protections for vulnerable residents

Advocates and law enforcement officials who respond to senior fraud cases acknowledge that for most elderly victims, there isn’t much that can be done to repair the physical and financial damage.

Shawn Conroy, an outreach coordinator with the Georgia Office of the Attorney General Consumer Protection Division, said that the Williams’ case offers an extreme example that may justify criminal prosecution.

“It’s critical for victims to understand that often they are being targeted by someone who does this as a profession,” he said. “You’re dealing with scam artists who — instead of having a legitimate business — their profession is being a con artist.”

Often the only way to combat fraud is educating seniors so they aren’t taken advantage of in the first place, said Conroy, who runs workshops out of places like local churches to help prevent seniors from falling into financial traps.

“They’re skilled in the ways of using high pressure tactics with their victims,” he said. “They use these tactics that make people act before they really think things through.”

Dorothy lived in the Harris Homes housing project with her four children when the pastor of her church offered for her family to move into the house just off of Cascade Road. They moved in in 1983, just a few years after the beloved soul food spot, The Beautiful Restaurant, opened up just down the street.

“That’s how I got this house,” she said. “God gave it to me.”

Dorothy raised her children and then grandchildren in the home that she described as having beautiful cherry wood floors and delicious smells constantly wafting from whatever was cooking in the kitchen.

Sitting on the porch with her husband, the thought of an end to the nightmare caused the longtime Atlantan to break down in tears.

“I want to be right here until God calls me home,” she said.