Unlicensed boardinghouse shut down; 15 residents relocated
A Common Pleas Court judge ordered the temporary shutdown Friday of an unlicensed assisted-living boardinghouse in North Philadelphia where a man died in a fire last year, city officials said.
A Common Pleas Court judge ordered the temporary shutdown Friday of an unlicensed assisted-living boardinghouse in North Philadelphia where a man died in a fire last year, city officials said.
Fifteen residents were removed from the three-story building in the 3000 block of North 22d Street and taken to Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School to be processed for relocation to temporary housing, said Everett Gillison, Mayor Nutter's chief of staff.
Judge Nina Wright Padilla granted a temporary injunction Friday afternoon to have the boardinghouse closed and sealed.
Earnestine Brown, identified by the city as the building's owner, failed to appear in court, Gillison said. Brown is the founder of Alliance of Youth Mission Ministries. The organization's website calls the building the Dillard House and says it houses displaced veterans.
Gillison said a man died in a fire at the boardinghouse in early November. About 30 people lived there at the time. City officials believed the building had been shut because of fire damage, Gillison said.
On Thursday, Peco notified the city that someone was using power in the building. Inspectors from the Department of Licenses and Inspections went to the site, but were refused permission to enter the building. That prompted a rapid city response to shut it down, Gillison said.
City officials will go back before the judge Monday to request that the injunction against the building be permanent, Gillison said.
The city is investigating Brown and her organization, he said. "I don't care how good-intentioned you are, you're placing people at risk," he said.
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