NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – It’s moving day for some residents at Crestview Towers after the building was deemed unsafe following a review in the wake of the Surfside condominium collapse.
Last week, residents began to make appointments to remove larger items from their abandoned units that they haven’t been able to get and Monday marked the day of the first appointments.
Local 10 News was outside the building as North Miami Beach police were there and had the entrance to the building blocked off.
Only a handful of appointments are being made per day and the residents have a specific timeframe for how long they are allowed to take to remove their belongings.
The residents were forced to evacuate their homes earlier this month.
People were previously permitted to enter their apartments for limited amounts of time to grab necessities and smaller items.
“We (had) two hours to get all of our belongings and then a week later we were able to get some more things for 15 minutes,” one resident, Joey Rodriguez, told Local 10 News last week.
“It was terrible, very traumatic. You know, I had all my things there, you know, my home is here. This is my home,” another resident, Ivana Mora, said.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle visited the apartment building last Wednesday, but it’s unclear whether anyone will ever be able to move back into the building.
“People do want to get on with their lives. They are tired of feeling this discomplacement that they have in their lives,” North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo said last week.
Officials say the condo association and management company should be reaching out to every resident, but if they haven’t, the mayor recommends residents reach out to them.
According to the mayor, engineers are currently working on the building and there’s no timeline for when it will reopen.