City empties 3 SRO buildings in prime nabe

The city cleared out three Chelsea SROs last week amid 140 buildings violations — a move that put residents on the street and had the Manhattan borough president questioning why the city failed to remedy dangerous conditions before forcing tenants out.

In a letter to Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Louise Carroll, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer cited a year-old Department of Buildings directive to repair rotting joists in one of the buildings and pointed to the city’s “lack of timely enforcement” as the reason why tenants were forced out.

The three buildings all occupy prime Manhattan real estate on W. 24th St. and presumably could fetch high rents if converted to marketrate housing.

“Clearly, the owner made no attempt to comply with the DOB directive, but in fact is in a position to substantially profit from the neglect of this housing,” she wrote in her letter dated July 2, the same day the Buildings Department issued the order to vacate the single room occupancies.

Six tenants had to move from their rooms and were placed in temporary housings as a result of the vacate orders, city officials said.

Unresolved violations have festered at 219, 221 and 223 W. 24th St. for months, city records show.

When contacted about the situation, a Housing Preservation spokeswoman declined to comment about the city’s failure to compel the buildings’ owner to address the violations, but claimed “tenant safety is our top priority.”