LATROBE, Pa. — A large apartment building on Latrobe’s Main Street has been condemned months after the city slapped the building with dozens of code violations. Now, tenants have less than two weeks to move out.
Vannessa Jordan has lived at 333 Main Street for the last 10 years.
“There’s been water leaks, rats, mice, cockroaches, bed bugs,” she told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek. “It’s too much.”
Channel 11 first talked to Jordan in October when the building was slapped with more than 100 code violations by the City of Latrobe. A fire alarm system was fixed, and now the city says about 75% of those code violations were addressed.
But, Jordan said things never really got better inside with the amount of bugs. Some tenants shared videos showing roaches and bed bugs in their apartments in October.
“You see them every day,” Jordan said. “I could be in broad daylight, be sitting there, and see one crawling across the floor. I just can’t believe somebody would let people live like this.”
On Friday, the city posted the condemnation notice on the building. In a press release, the city says the building is “unsanitary, unsafe, and vermin-infested, creating a serious hazard to the health or safety of the occupants.”
Jordan said police and other city officials told them they’d have 14 days to leave the building.
“My mind is going 50 different directions, I do not know where I’m going,” Jordan said.
Jordan said living on a fixed income from disability, the $500 she pays for rent each month is already tough for her, and a lot of the places she’s finding are even more expensive.
“I’ve even tried to look in other towns, like Derry or Greensburg, and I just can’t find anything that I can afford,” Jordan said.
A few local groups are working to try and help the 40 residents of the apartment building find a new, affordable place to live. The Union Mission and Faith Forward Community Care Center are holding a meeting Tuesday with tenants to help with resources.
Jordan said she won’t be taking much of her belongings because of the bugs, and despite the uncertainty, she’s glad the building is being condemned and can’t wait to be out.
“I’ll probably be the happiest I’ve ever been,” she told Havranek. “I won’t have to deal with an infestation anymore.”
As for what’s next for the building, the city manager said he couldn’t elaborate further because the city is involved in litigation with the building’s owner.
The building’s owner has not returned calls from Channel 11.
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