Residents of Building 5050 who had been evicted for several months have finally been given the keys to return to their apartments in what they say has been an intense and costly battle to get back to their homes.
“It’s the key to my apartment. I think it’s beautiful, as I’ve always had,” said one of the neighbors after learning that she will be able to “return to her apartment after a year and a half”.
And while she knows there’s still a lot to do, she says she’s finally gotten back to her space, which she reveals she feels “very content, very happy about.”
Virginia does not forget that night of August 9, 2021, when she and the dozens of families in building 5050 had to evacuate. A month earlier, Miami city inspectors determined the property was unsafe.
Virginia recalls: “I was very depressed, because I thought to myself, ‘well, it will be a week or a fortnight. And I took only the most necessary, but I saw that it was spreading. I only took clothes, I left the furniture”.
Then begins a long battle for the 137 displaced families to return as soon as possible.
Many locals like Nelly wonder what is being done? When will the work be finished?… But other questions have been added to these questions.
Denise Pérez, president of the association, recognizes “the anguish of all the owners of not being able to return. And have duplicate expenses.
Almost a year later, a new company is hired to prevent the demolition and speed up the work.
Jackeline Díaz, of the company that manages building 5050, admits that “no arrangement had been made. In June or July, it all started. We work very quickly.”
But this speed was not enough to keep the owners coming back. When they thought that fixing the columns would be enough, other surprises appeared like “the plumbing, the fire. We discovered that the fire pump had not been inspected since 2017,” acknowledges Díaz.
Finally this Saturday, most owners came to pick up their keys.
“It’s one of the battles fought, but we still have a war because here a lot of things are missing,” warns Denise Pérez, president of the association, although she adds that “a lot remains unresolved but nothing does not threaten the safety of the tenants … there is still work to be done to paint the building Among other things”.