A building-renovation mishap has left two 100-year-old Stuyvesant Heights landmark brownstones on the brink of collapse and their residents homeless, with just the clothes on their backs, perhaps never to return.
About seven residents were evacuated from 329 and 331 MacDonough St. by the Fire Department after a wall collapsed in the basement of the homes, according to residents.
A Brooklyn Supreme Court judge told them yesterday that they must wait until Monday to find out if they will ever be allowed back in their homes to retrieve their possessions.
“We have nothing,” said Lieselle Pascall, 23, a personal assistant. “We are technically homeless, but we have a home. It’s sad.”
A contractor hired by the owner of 329 MacDonough, Robert Providence, made some illegal renovations in the basement and broke through a shared wall, cracking a gas and water pipe, according to the Department of Buildings.
Department engineer Tim Lynch said 75 percent of the load-bearing wall in the basement has collapsed, and tons of rubble are likely the only thing holding the buildings up.
Displaced residents were in court yesterday before Judge Bert Bunyan to see about getting their belongings.
A Providence spokesperson said the contractor was just trying to fix some cracks in the basement when the collapse occurred.