AAFE had hired the engineer who wrote the report. On Dec. 3, building residents say, AAFE representatives told them that the city Buildings Department was about to order tenants to leave within 24 hours. The next day, an AAFE staffer said they might have to be out by sundown. May. They returned later and said the building didn't have to be vacated. AAFE official Frank Lang then offered tenants advocacy services, which they rejected.
Tenants are now in court with the landlord.
Tenant association head Joan Moossy says the building had been inspected several times since 1989, when the federal government seized it in a drug-forfeiture proceeding, without any signs of imminent collapse being found. It was auctioned to Lin in 1994. That's not true, says Moossy. We became activists overnight. Meanwhile, ABC has been able to stave off eviction in Housing Court on technicalities involving HPD turning off a lightbulb in the building's doorway, but the city will be able to move for an immediate eviction once it's back on, says Steve Englander.