Revere Board of Health votes to condemn apartment building with history of safety issues

Revere’s Board of Health voted to condemn one building of the Water’s Edge apartment complex Thursday night.

People living in the building at 364 Ocean Avenue will now have to find a new place to live. According to the city inspector, the building isn’t safe to live in due to mold and fire risk issues.

“I’m not a mold expert, but I know what mold looks like when it grows on ceiling tiles after they’ve been wet and dried from leaks in the building,” Revere Deputy Fire Chief Paul Cheever said at the town meeting. “Ownership has a tendency to take down the tiles, spray painting them and putting them back up.”

In 2022, parts of the building were flooded after a fire and damaged the fire panel.

The fire department said nothing has been done to fix that.

David Frye, an attorney representing Water’s Edge Limited Partnership, told to Board of Health before the vote to condem, “You have a 2022 order, you have no re-inspection report in front of you, you have no current inspection report in front of you, no current order to correct. You cannot condemn under those circumstances without that information. I believe it’s five calendar days, though, if the board is to render decisions, typically you’re allowed five calendar days before you make a decision. That’s what it says.”

Residents were also vocal about not wanting the building to be condemned because of fear that there were no other housing options.

One who identified herself as Lunasi said, “Please think about the financial roadblocks many of the families here today and who are not even here because they’re working their second job the many challenges this is going to pose for them.”

Another tenant said, “People who live in this building are working people. They don’t have houses, they’re not rich. They are not in subsidized buildings because they work. Please consider it to move anywhere right now, it’s $15 ,000.”

Resident Sylvia Smith also spoke and said the building had problems but not in the state to be condemned. She said issues like wires hanging and holes in the walls have been addressed and she’s concerned that with the current housing issues in the state, there is nowhere else to go.

“I want my home. Like everybody else that lives there, we want our home. Do things right by us. Not right by the owner. Do things right by us because we’re the tenants. We have to live there. Re-inspect the building. See what’s still wrong. See what’s been fixed,” said Smith. She also pointed out that reports of fires from homeless encampments in the parking garage were in an adjacent parking garage.

When it comes to repairs Aldo Parnasso of Water’s Edge LP said, “Everything that I was asked to do I did and I always report back to the city what’s been done in the property.”

During comments from the Board of Health, Dr. Drew Bunker spoke on the perspective as a physician talking about a potentially unsafe living situation. He said, “You look at the codes, you know, there’s these codes, Sanitary codes are being broken, things are not being fixed. I worry about the safety of the occupants from that perspective. I also worry about the safety of the occupants now that we’re going to potentially condemn.”

Barry Rockland, who lives at another Water’s Edge apartment building, was also on the side of the Board of Health. “We take about 15 breaths a minute. And that’s 15 breaths of mold, spores, and char from the fires, from the mold, from the water damage, we know it’s there. Save your lives. I hope and believe Revere will take care of the 41 people that are in that building. But by God, you need to be breathing clean air if you’re going to live,” said Rockland.

Residents said 41 families live in the building and the landlord is nowhere to be found. Some claim they haven’t heard from them in years.

It will be up to the city and the Board of Health how they enforce the time frame for people moving out.

Originally, residents said they were told they would have three days to vacate if the building was condemned.

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