WORCESTER — Finding that the lawyer for the owners of the partially collapsed apartment building on Mill Street was asking the court to overrule the city without the presence of a city representative, a state Housing Court judge postponed a hearing Monday over setting a period to require the salvaging or disposal of belongings in the apartment.
Walter H. Jacobs, attorney for Fren Management Company, Inc., the Franklin-based owner of the 32-unit Pond View Apartment Homes at 267 Mill St., argued to the judge that the nature of the request has changed with evolving evaluation of the safety of entering the building from city inspectors.
While residents were previously allowed in groups to come and retrieve some essential items from their units at specific times, Jacobs said the city’s evaluation changed to where it would not be feasible for people to enter the building.
As engineers will likely need to enter the building at some point to deal with structurally deficient walls, Jacobs said the building’s owner needed a court order to allow employees and residents to salvage their belongings and place into storage or to dispose of items that cannot be recovered ahead of the arrival of the engineers.
“We need a court order that allows us to go into these units,” Jacobs said.
Michelle Fren of Fren Management was present at the hearing Monday.
On July 15, an early-morning roofing job at a Mill Street apartment building led to construction material falling through the roof, weakening the building and forcing the evacuation of residents.
From the exterior, a gaping hole was left on the roof and some front upper floor porches were collapsed. Jacobs said that some rooms have been “pancaked” by the collapse and the hole has led to rain entering the building, possibly creating mold in some of the residents’ belongings with the summer heat.
Judge Diana H. Horan said that Fren Management’s request seemed to her to be an attempt to get the Housing Court to go over the city’s verdict on the building prematurely.
“What I’m hearing you ask the court to do is overrule the city’s condemnation order,” Horan said.
Horan said that she believes a city inspector or an engineer capable of evaluating the state of the building should have been present in court to give testimony.
Jacobs said the city was advised of the Monday hearing, but he said he did not subpoena them to appear when asked by Horan.
Horan postponed the hearings until 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The Housing Court has 30 cases on its docket relating to the Mill Street property.
Residents ready to testify
Fren Management was the plaintiff in all the cases and various residents were defendants, with two groups of 15 scheduled to have their cases heard between on 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday.
A handful of residents prepared to give testimony at 2 p.m., with Horan advising them that their testimony should pertain to Fren Management’s requested order and the court may ask them to stay on subject.
Horan apologized to the assembled crowd for wasting their time on Monday, but some of the tenants were happy at her challenges to Fren Management’s request.
“We are all excited,” resident Mercy Martin said. “Very happy about what the judge has said. Because all along, (Michelle Fren) was pushing us against the wall. She wants you to do what she wants.”
Martin said that Fren Management has been controlling over the days that residents can come in, and that staff have opened residents’ doors and some residents have seen their belongings scattered across their apartments without their knowledge ahead of time.
Tenants have previously expressed their frustrations with Fren Management’s response to the collapse and their communication with tenants.
Some tenants at the courthouse Monday described their experience July 15 and their issues with the owners.
Ivory Filmore, a resident said that the collapse felt sudden.
“It was just a sudden change of life,” she said. “Woke up first thing in the morning — 10:30 (a.m.), this thing had happened and next thing you know our lives just changed.”
Filmore said she did not expect the judge to be favorable to Fren Management, because she said their order felt like them rushing and ordering the tenants around. She said that the owners have been telling residents to go into their apartments after the collapse.
Tough conditions
In addition, the apartments now have emptied refrigerators and rugs pulled out in the hallways, leaving nails exposed and creating more danger in entering the building, Filmore said.
Filmore said the building’s owners told residents last week they needed to get their belongings out by Friday, or they would be taken to court. She said that residents were in their units struggling with last week’s heat wave as they tried to gather belongings.
“Everyone was in there sweating. Even myself I got sick, I threw up, I was dizzy,” Filmore said. “They’re expecting us to move out in the pitch black dark and pack all these things up and be out.”
The owners did not need to take the matter to court and could have just offered to pay for storage and moving, Filmore said.
Filmore said that some previous reports that the residents would get $750 in insurance money turned out to not be true, because insurance did not rule the collapse a natural disaster. The residents received half of July’s rent, June’s rent, safety deposits and any interest accrued so far.
Samuel Okai, a first floor resident, said that he was at the barber shop when his cousin, who is Okai’s roommate, called him about the evacuation. Okai left immediately and returned home before finishing his haircut.
Okai said he has not been able to get into his room because the damage to upper units has affected his room. He said the ownership has not been helpful.
“There’s no conversation and we don’t have money to go and rent storage,” Okai said.
Jacobs did not offer comment after the postponement.
A person who picked up a call to Fren Management said she had no comment.
Residents in needed of housing had been lodged at the Holiday Inn on Summer Street until Monday.
Last week, members of most households in the buildings went to a resource recovery center stationed at the DCU Center to learn about recovery services.
The United Way of Central Massachusetts has been working on finding short-term housing solutions for the residents after Monday and the city has informed residents of a hotline for any additional needs they may have.
