Officials Raze Crumbling Apartment Building In McKeesport
MCKEESPORT (KDKA) -- Officials razed a crumbling McKeesport apartment building Friday.
With the swing of the backhoe, the four-unit apartment building on Harrison Street in Mckeesport started to come down.
Just 24 hours earlier, the structure was condemned and everyone evacuated after complaints came in about falling bricks and the building shifting.
Initially, the building was to come down at 7 a.m. Friday, but that changed.
Demolition crews gave the tenants a few more hours to remove their belongings before bringing the building down.
Basically, residents had 24 hours to get what they could and get out for good.
For 62-year-old Jim Jenkins, who had only lived in his first-floor unit for two months, that meant leaving with the clothes on his back and his bicycle. He told KDKA's Brenda Waters he is now homeless.
"Now, I go live on the river, again," Jenkins said.
He left all of his belongings inside the condemned building.
"Because I got nowhere to take it," Jenkins said.
Jawuan Brown, who has two children and a third on the way, calls the evacuation and the demolition a blessing in disguise. He knew the house next door was empty and available, and he was able to rent it for his family.
"At first, we had nowhere to go. We were putting everything in storage, that's where I just came back from. Honestly, I'm just happy that we were able to move here. God works, that's all I can say. God works, yes ma'am ... [We're moving] into a whole house for the same price [as the apartment]. For the same price! Yes ma'am, yes ma'am," Brown said.
With the exception of Jenkins, everyone was able to find other housing or move in with relatives.
