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Aug 18, 2008 10:30 pm US/Central
More Help Arrives For Homeless Irving Residents
IRVING (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
More help arrived Monday for hundreds of Irving residents forced to evacuate their apartments.
Monday night, about 150 former tenants of the complex attended a meeting held by the city. Following the meeting, the tenants seemed to be happy with the answers they received.
Also on Monday, firefighters and other volunteers delivered food from the North Texas Food Bank to the Ramada Inn in Irving.
The city is paying for many of Vista Del Lago's residents to stay there after their apartment complex was
declared structurally dangerous on Friday. Officials say 1,700 code violations were found by fire inspectors. The city fire chief referred to the apartment complex as one of the worst in the city.
"In an event that there was a structural fire there or high winds, or a storm, we're concerned that the structure would not hold up," said Irving Fire Chief Mario Molina.
In June,
CBS 11 News checked out the Irving apartment complex and found raw sewage running out of a pipe and onto the grass. The city has found 30 code violations at the complex. The complex had until August to make repairs, but failed to meet the standards.
"We would much rather inconvenience the citizens now than to have to be answering for the loss of the life because we saw a condition that was dangerous and didn't act upon it," said Teresa Adrian, code enforcement.
Now the tenants are getting help to move out.
"We're grateful for that. You know, at least they didn't just kick us out on the street with nowhere to go," said Marvin Clinton, apartment evacuee.
More than a 100 other heads of households must juggle finding new homes while holding onto their jobs.
"Really don't have that much money, so I'm glad they're helping us out right now," said Lynn Hennessy, apartment evacuee.
Evacuees are also getting help finding new apartments.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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