Soundview tenants concerned that recent DOB inspection missed issues

Multiple residents let News 12 come into their homes, showing cracks that go up walls, around ceilings and, in some cases, even through to the next unit.  

Greg Thompson

Dec 27, 2023, 1:17 AM

Updated 287 days ago

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Even after a city-ordered Department of Buildings inspection of all addresses with connections to the Morris Heights collapse earlier this month, residents at 1210 Croes Avenue in Soundview tell News 12 that because of multiple cracks in their building, they still don't feel safe.
"Is this building structurally sound?" the president of the tenants association,  David Correa, said. "By seeing all these cracks, we don't think so."
Multiple residents let News 12 come into their homes, showing cracks that go up walls, around ceilings and, in some cases, even through to the next unit.  
Correa says they fear the DOB missed the cracks, in part, because the tenants were not allowed to specifically show the inspector around and point things out, telling News 12 "I definitely feel like they didn't do a good job, because had they did it, they would see all the issues that lie within this building."
Instead, the DOB only found issues on the outside of the building. The agency told tenants in one corner of the building to stay off their balconies for now, the owner to install a sidewalk cover for safety, and to hire an engineer to look at other issues with the facade.
Correa says this isn't what they really wanted checked out. 
"The fear is real," said Correa. "Tenants come over to me and say how scared and petrified they are. One of them said they're having problems sleeping - because they don't know if this building's going to collapse."
The tenants' fears were made worse when they learned that the building's ownership company appears to share a P.O. Box address with the owners of the Billingsley Terrace building that collapsed in Morris Heights on December 11th, and both companies seem to be run by the same people.
"It's sad that a tragedy has to happen like that, and now everybody's coming around wanting to know what's wrong, and we knew all along what was wrong.  things were wrong," Correa says.
Correa tells News 12 he would like the DOB to send someone back to the building and let the tenants show the inspector the worst cracks, many of which we're told have grown in the last year, to make sure they're specifically addressed.
When News 12 reached out to the DOB, they said they had gone into apartments they were someone let them in, and while they do not have any 311 complaints about cracks in the wall on file for 1210 Croes Avenue, they'll work to schedule a new inspection.
Multiple calls to ownership made by News 12 both last week and this week were not returned.