Tenants must leave after Revere apartment building is condemned

Over 40 families are being forced out of their homes at the Water’s Edge apartment building in Revere after the city condemned it at a Board of Health hearing Thursday evening. 

City officials say issues have plagued the 13-story apartment building at 364 Ocean Ave. for years, threatening the health and safety of its residents. 

Water’s Edge has schemed and refused to remediate its deteriorating life and safety systems, said Paul Tellier, the city’s attorney. 

As a result, its tenants live in a “moldy, rat-infested high-rise building with no fire alarm and fire sprinklers that do not work,” he said. 

In response, attorneys for Water’s Edge say the city is violating proper procedures and disputed claims of mold and rats. 

The condemnation will “render all these people with no place to live,” said David Frye, an attorney representing the owners of Water Edge Limited Partnership, at the hearing. “You can’t just do it in the middle of the night and ask for people to be placed somewhere else. That, to me, is insane.”

Regardless, the Board of Health unanimously condemned the building following a tense meeting. 

“You deserve safe and livable conditions,” Board of Health member Viviana Catano said before the vote. “I’m sorry you are not receiving that right now.”

Cantanop added that the city allowed the owners ample time to fix the problems.

“I’m sorry you are all in this situation because you are the victim of this neglect,” she said, speaking to the residents in the audience. 

The urgency of the building’s problems reached a climax about 20 months ago when a flood in November 2022 damaged a fire panel. Even before the damage occurred, the fire panel was so old that the parts needed to fix it were unavailable and no longer met the code. 

Further investigation into the building found problems, including: 

• The fire panel is old, inoperable and in need of replacement 
• The fire pump was not functioning properly, so there might not be enough pressure to get water above the sixth floor
• Sprinkler heads are corroded and not functioning properly
• Fire-rated doors aren’t being maintained
• Holes in the sheetrock 
• Fireproofing missing in the garage 
• Mold found in hallway walls and ceilings 
• Rodent infestation 
• Overflow in the trash room
• A homeless encampment located in one of the garages 

City officials said some if not most violations date back to 2017. 

“This is a real threat to the health and safety of the building department and first responders,” Deputy Fire Chief Paul Cheever said at the hearing. 

Cheever said that the fire department, which has been providing fire watch since the panel was found to be inoperable in the building, has responded to this building 85 times over the past 20 months. During this time, four fires were reported: one in an overflowing trash chute, another in the trash room, and two in the garage. 

Most of the calls were for maintenance problems, such as elevators being out of service, fire alarm systems going off, and water issues like leaking plumbing or rainwater getting into the building. 

Cheever said the number of calls is unusual for a building of this type. 

He said the property owners have not paid the fire department since February. 

The city’s director of municipal inspections said the same issues continue at the property next door, 370 Ocean Ave., which has the same owners and remains vacant following a fire in June 2022 that displaced over 80 residents.

Tenants at the meeting acknowledged problems at the building but worried about where they would go next if forced to leave. 

“Rent in the city of Revere is absolutely out of control,” tenant Lunecee Eligene said at the hearing. “For a lot of people who live at 364, it’s the only place we can afford.”

Sylvia Smith, a resident at the property, pleaded with the city to ask for some more time. 

“We want our home,” she said. “Do things right by us, not by the owner, because we are the tenants, and we have to live here.” 

State statute requires the building owners to find comparable homes for the residents through the remainder of their leases. 

City officials did not say how long the tenants must leave but said they would work with them to make a plan. 

“We will not turn our backs on these residents,” Mayor Patrick Keefe Jr. said in a statement on Friday. “Our team and advocates have been on the ground for the past month, working to provide the necessary assistance and resources to those affected.

The Mayor said that the city will continue to staff the building with 24-hour fire personnel, regardless of the owner’s cooperation or ability to pay.

“I can’t even speak for the people living there because no one should ever have to feel like that, ever in their life,” Board of Health Chair Drew Bunker said at the hearing. “It sickens me to think of that.”

But, he acknowledged that the Board of Health has a duty to protect people’s health. 

“This decision was never going to be easy,” he said.