Frustrations continue at North Shore apartment complex months after a parking garage collapsed
PITTSBURGH —
The Bracken House apartment complex on the North Shore hosted a town hall meeting Thursday night to provide updates on the collapsed parking garage.
The garage was condemned in April after a concrete slab collapsed inside.
Tenants said they’ve been dealing with problems ever since.
“By the time I moved in, the elevators were shut down, and you couldn’t access any of it,” Will Lorenchick told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 Reporter Jordan Cioppa.
Lorenchick, who moved to Bracken House two weeks after the collapse, said the mailboxes and elevators were inaccessible in the aftermath.
“All the mail went to the front office,” Lorenchick said. “I know I had a couple bills that I never even actually received because they had it all unorganized.”
While residents have access to the mailboxes and elevators again, parking in the garage remains off limits.
Residents said Bracken House is providing a shuttle service to the West General Robinson Street Garage, which is about half a mile away. The service stops running after a certain hour.
Cars parked on the property are often towed, according to Lorenchick.
“A lot of the women in there are concerned because they’re trying to move us to a different parking garage moving forward, which would put us in a less safe part of the North Side,” one resident told us after he left the town hall.
That was one of the updates to come out of the meeting, which was only open to residents.
Residents who attended the town hall said they were told the garage is projected to reopen in the winter, despite originally being told it would happen in June.
A Pittsburgh city official said the Permits, Licenses, and Inspections department issued a permit to repair the garage.
According to residents, Bracken House said they will receive a $200 monthly credit until the garage reopens.
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 did not immediately hear back from Bracken House management for comment.