Crime & Safety
Tenants Of Collapsed Worcester Building To Get Moving, Storage: Judge
A judge has ordered a Worcester landlord to figure out a way to help tenants move and store belongings after the July 15 partial collapse.
WORCESTER, MA — A Housing Court judge has ordered a Worcester landlord to pay for and arrange moving and storage services for tenants left homeless by a partial building collapse earlier this month.
At a hearing Wednesday, Housing Court Judge Diana Horan ordered the owner of 267 Mill St. and tenants to meet with mediators on Aug. 4 to hash out how apartments will be emptied. The order comes after the landlord took tenants to court seeking permission to start moving their belongings for them.
Worcester District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj — who represents the part of Worcester where the building is located — attended Wednesday's hearing and said it was a small victory for the more than 100 people left homeless by the July 15 collapse.
At Wednesday's hearing, Walter Jacobs, an attorney representing building owner 267 Mill Street LLC, said that plans were in place to move tenants' belongings to a facility in Brockton. Horan balked at the plan because of the distance between Brockton and Worcester, and asked for the landlord to find a storage space within 25 miles of Worcester.
Jacobs said the landlord has had trouble finding storage space closer to Worcester, and offered a location in North Chelmsford as an alternative. The hearing next Thursday will allow tenants to meet with housing specialists to figure out their own individual moving plans, including the option of using the North Chelmsford site with roundtrip moving services provided by the landlord. Tenants will also be allowed back into the building to move out their belongings, if they choose.
Wednesday's hearing was the second time the tenants and landlord have had to meet in court. Horan continued a hearing on Monday after Jacobs revealed that Worcester building officials were not allowing anyone inside the building. Deputy Building Commissioner David Horne appeared in court on Wednesday and said the Mill Street building had been deemed safe for reentry.
Four of the Mill Street building's 32 units were damaged in the July 15 collapse. The collapse happened after a construction crew left heavy roofing materials in one spot, according to court documents. That section of the roof collapsed through four apartments and into the basement.
Horan ordered the landlord to present a moving company that had expertise in construction work to handle the units directly damaged by the collapse.
According to city records, the building owner hired contractor RescueREO in late June to replace the roof, windows, sliding doors and reinforce balconies at a cost of $107,000. 267 Mill LLC had just purchased the building in June for about $5.7 million, and was in the process of increasing rents in the weeks before the collapse, tenants have said.
No one was injured in the July 15 collapse, but tenants have struggled in the wake of the disaster to find shelter. Many tenants have been given back security deposits, but a vaunted $750 insurance payment will not be available to them because the building was not damaged by fire. The United Way of Central Massachusetts has set up a special fund to aid the victims of the collapse.
