Spring Garden Residents Pleading For Help After Home Deemed Uninhabitable Due To Nearby Construction
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Residents in Spring Garden are pleading for help after their home was deemed uninhabitable due to nearby construction. Now, residents are searching for somewhere to go.
Over the last few weeks, tenants were forced to move out of their building, and say there's still no open line of communication with their management group.
Pictures, one after the next, of the walls getting ready to fall apart inside of 1919 Green Street were provided by residents.
"If you saw that crack, you would've gotten out of there as soon as you could," Seth McDaniel said.
It all started after construction crews from the Archive Development Group started excavating the lower level of 1921 Green Street next door.
"The contractors came out and said everything's fine, it's just cosmetic. Then they send an engineer out and they say no it's just cosmetic," Melissa Buchanico said.
But by March 10, License and Inspection deemed the building imminently dangerous and at risk of collapse. Everyone had to go.
"I was more nervous because I have a child and I was on the top floor so I knew that if anything happened I knew there was a slim to little chance we were going to be OK if God forbid anything happened," Buchanico said.
Developers based out of California received two violations for failing to protect the neighboring property while excavating and the absence of a special inspector.
They have since braced the adjacent building and say there was some rotting at 1919 Green Street and everything on their end is being done according to code. But former tenants say construction crews left hazards in their backyard.
"Dangerous sharp things and like frayed wires. We didn't know what we could touch and what we couldn't," Cassidy Hillburn said.
For now, tenants are trying to secure their deposits from management at 1919 but can't seem to get solid answers. They did not respond to our inquiries either.
"I've already lost a lot of money on moving costs. Things that I needed covered I wasn't able to have help with," Hillburn said.
Last summer, Mayor Jim Kenney signed an ordinance with revised provisions relating to safeguarding adjoining properties during excavation, but that doesn't go into effect until January of next year.
For now, L&I says auditing here will continue and they may take action to suspend the contractor's license.
