Days after being assured by her landlord that the broken window in her apartment was just damage from renovations, Cynthia Curry returned home from work on June 4 to find a notice saying she needed to vacate her University Heights building within 48 hours. An hour later, the notice was cut in half by the Fire Department, giving Curry, her two sons, her two grandchildren and her son’s girlfriend less than 24 hours to pack up their belongings and find someplace else to live.

Curry and her family were among the 200 residents of 2400 Webb Ave. who were scrambling for answers and a place to live last week after contractors inexplicably removed all of the building’s fire escapes two weeks ago.

On Saturday, June 2, when visiting the building on an unrelated case, an inspector from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) noticed the seven-story building did not have fire escapes. Fernando Tirado, district manager of Community Board 7, said that soon after the inspector’s discovery, the FDNY, Department of Buildings (DOB) and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) were notified.

On Monday, tenants were ultimately told they must move out by 6 p.m. the next day, Tuesday, June 5. The building’s landlord, Goldfarb Properties, would need to have the fire escapes re-installed, a job that could take up to six months, before they could return.

“We felt a sense of violation,” said first floor resident and tenant organizer Michael Staton. “I had less than 24 hours, basically, from the time I reached home from work [June 4] until [June 5] to just basically vacate whatever I had and leave here without any prospect of how long it was going to be before I could return.”

Given such short notice, tenants had to leave some belongings and furniture behind. Curry and Staton said they only took clothing and toiletries.

Staton said the renovation of the apartment building had been going on for at least three weeks. He knew the work included replacing air conditioning sleeves and brickwork, but tenants did not know the work would include the removal of fire escapes.

Curry said she didn’t know the contractors were removing the fire escape until they broke her window during the process of removal. She called the landlord several times about her broken window, which hasn’t been repaired yet. She also asked questions regarding the removal of the fire escapes but didn’t receive an answer.

When they began to notice this happening, many were concerned for their safety.

“There was no water sprinklers, there was no fire escape…it was a death trap,” said Kevin Scott, Curry’s boyfriend.

DOB spokesperson Ryan FitzGibbon said the department issued Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations to the building owner, Webb Avenue Company, LLC (a subsidiary of Goldfarb Properties), which did not have a permit to remove the fire escapes.

An employee from Goldfarb Properties said that the renovation project was approved by the company’s engineer for work on the outside of the building, but declined to say why they specifically removed the fire escapes.

Sally Dunford, executive director of West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center, said she has never seen or heard of anything like this before. But she doesn’t think the landlord is a slumlord, necessarily. She said this may be a result of miscommunication.

“Clearly there is a problem, clearly the landlord is part of a problem,” Dunford said. “The question is, is it deliberate? Or did he just make a very, very stupid mistake?”

Some tenants told reporters they were offered buyouts of their leases and some speculated that the landlord wanted them out. Dunford said if he was offering buyouts, it would not be illegal.

Dunford said she saw the landlord helping tenants move out and working with the elderly to make sure that they were placed somewhere safe.

Staton said he thinks management had some indication there was a problem and was disappointed in their response, calling it “piss-poor” and “woefully inadequate.”

“They had a duty and responsibility to notify these residents here,” Staton said. “If this had been a situation where we were in upper or mid-Manhattan, it would have been a totally different response.”

Most tenants were able to move in with friends and relatives, relocating to other boroughs or even New Jersey. However, some are unsure of where they’re going to stay. Tenant Donna Newyear said the management offered to provide temporary housing in local hotels, but when she called, every hotel was booked.

Curry said she missed three days of work while she was relocating. She spent three days at a Ramada Inn in East Orange, New Jersey before realizing that the hotel had bed bugs. She is now staying with friends in New Jersey. The rest of her family is staying at a shelter in the Bronx because one of her granddaughters attends school in the area.

A school bus used to pick up her granddaughter at the University Heights building and take her to her school on Kingsbridge Road, but now it takes a half-hour for Curry’s son to travel to the school from the shelter.

“I feel homeless and really depressed about it,” Curry said. “I feel like I’m in a limbo.”

No one has indicated how long this will take and Staton said he could see it being up to six months before he and other residents can come back. As compensation, Goldfarb Properties is giving tenants $840, $120 a day, for seven days.

“We are being displaced,” Staton said. “[they’re] basically saying ‘we’re going to upset your world here, take this $840 and do the best you can do.”

Tirado said tenants may be eligible for a rent reduction, as low as $1 per month, during their time of displacement.

Penalties against the building owner will be imposed at a hearing held by ECB where they will review the violations. NYCDOB is currently investigating the building owner, engineer and contractor and will take appropriate enforcement action based on their findings.

Ed. note: A version of this article appears in the June 14-27 print edition of the Norwood News.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.