Worcester Washington Heights Fire: Residents Face Problems After Blaze

WORCESTER, MA — On an oppressively hot day in early July, a handful of residents from the Washington Heights apartment complex gathered in a small, dark conference room at the Residence Inn along Plantation Street.

It was about a month after they fled their apartments when a fire broke out early in the morning on June 4. The blaze damaged multiple units in the complex off Mill Street, displacing 36 people. The fire moved quickly through the building, they remembered. Many assumed the blaring fire alarm was another in a series of false alarms, and only escaped after neighbors banged on doors and yelled about flames and smoke.

In the weeks after the fire, residents said they've continued to endure stress and uncertainty. Most residents displaced by the fire were sent to the Residence Inn — on the opposite side of Worcester from Washington Heights — with just the clothes on their backs. The managers of the complex, they say, failed to communicate with them about what would happen next.

"We feel like we’ve been tossed here and told, 'You're on your own,'" one resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

"We're all we have right now," another resident added.

On top of communication issues, $750 insurance payments for each resident under state law were distributed unevenly, they said. Some were afraid their time at the Residence Inn would end July 31 (that deadline has since been extended to Aug. 31). A main hardship has been access to their possessions. The residents cannot enter the units to collect important paperwork like birth certificates and social security cards due to hazards in the building.

Washington Heights is a project-based Section 8 complex — like a public housing development, but owned by a private company. Related Companies, the owner of Washington Heights is, a prominent real estate company that owns many large buildings in cities ranging from New York to London, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. The company also operates affordable complexes like the Olde English Village in Gardner and Plantation Towers in Worcester.

Since the days after the fire, the residents have received help from state Rep. David LeBoeuf, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj and Worcester Fire Department Lt. Robin Melvin. The officials have been meeting with Related Companies management weekly, and Haxhiaj reported that the group has made good progress getting help for the residents.

By the end of July, a plan was in place to retrieve important belongs for residents, and to put everything else in storage pods. The apartments have asbestos panels that need to be abated under strict health and safety guidelines, which means the residents can’t go into their old homes for the time being. As of this week, abatement work had not started.

On the housing front, the displaced residents will either get an empty unit elsewhere at Washington Heights — although the complex is mostly full — or a unit through MassHousing. The housing agency began meeting with residents in mid-July to identify potential new homes.
Some residents have also received Section 8 vouchers, which can be used to pay for regular rental housing, although many landlords can refuse to accept vouchers.

"Just because someone has Section 8 doesn’t mean you have to accept them," the Mass Landlords Section 8 guide says. “Suppose an applicant has Section 8 but no money to pay a security deposit, and you require a security deposit for this apartment. You can safely turn away the Section 8 applicant by telling them, 'Come back when you have enough for a deposit.' The same applies for criminal, credit, eviction history, or any other business-related screening practice that you apply to all applicants equally.”

Those vouchers also expire. One resident had a voucher that expired in September, and had no idea what would happen if she couldn't find housing by then.

Other residents could wait until the burned units are renovated, which could take a year or more. As of this week, 20 residents were still waiting to get placed in a new home.

"The safety of residents remains our top priority as we work through the extensive repairs required after the fire at the Washington Heights Apartments. We appreciate their patience as we work through the remediation plan, environmental reviews and permitting and will continue to offer residents support including accommodations and resources during this time," a Related Companies spokesperson said in July when asked about the residents’ concerns.

The response from the Washington Heights owners does stand in contrast to a similar situation in the same neighborhood in 2022. Days after a roof collapse at a building at 267 Mill St., the owners took their tenants to court to get permission to remove their possessions. State and city officials had to intervene to place the residents in hotel rooms while they searched for new homes.

The residents are also fearful of potential future problems if they find a new unit at Washington Heights. The June 4 fire followed years of neglect at Washington Heights, the residents said. One resident said it took four years to get a light fixed in her kitchen. The residents said the doorbells were wired wrong, power outages happened frequently — plus the false fire alarms.

According to city records, Washington Heights residents have made dozens of complaints about conditions in the complex dating back to July 2021, everything from flooding during heavy rain to rats, mold and cockroaches, missing fixtures and leaky windows. In one complaint, a resident reported a dead animal in the wall and a smell "like death" that management refused to do anything about, telling the tenant to "wait until it decomposes." City inspectors over the years have sent multiple letters to Related Companies about violations, forcing the company to address the problems.

Even with concerns about maintenance, the residents said they are heartbroken about losing homes that they had worked years to make their own. One resident reminisced about sitting on her porch while neighbors barbecued in the courtyard. That sense of security in a home was taken in an instant. They want to be back in the safety of a permanent home, in a community where they know their neighbors, they said.

"We literally lost everything in the span of five minutes," a resident said. "It takes a long time to build a home. It was all gone in a few minutes."