Two days before she's forced to leave the condo she's called home for three years, Kim Crayton spent the evening packing. Where she'll unpack, she's not quite sure.
"We don't have storage. We don't know where we're going. A lot of us are basically homeless," Kim said.
Last week, Crayton came home to find a notice posted on every other door of the Rittenhouse Club Condos in Norristown. The building, it read, had been deemed unfit for occupancy, ordering all residents out by 5:00 p.m. this Friday.
The list of problems was long, including the fire stairs weren't made of steel, but rather wood, exposed wiring everywhere, and concrete walls not properly filled, which the letter says, "create the potential for a structural collapse of the treads, risers and landings."
In a recent interview, the building's developer, Bruce Fazio, denied shoddy workmanship, claiming the township certified his every move.
Indeed, as Action News cameras saw, a fire sprinkler system the letter deemed "compromised" passed inspection, as recently as February.
Township solicitor Sean Kilkenny has pledged a full investigation, saying he wants to know how and why flagrant safety violations seemingly got the green light.
So do residents, who must continue to pay their monthly mortgage, on top of taxes to the same municipality that was supposed to ensure their safety.
"Because we were all issued certificates of occupancy, which means it was safe. Now, all of a sudden it's not safe," Crayton said.
While some residents Action News spoke with say they still aren't sure where they'll go once Friday rolls around, they do know they won't be coming back if and when the building reopens.
