More than 30 Dyker residents displaced after illegal conversion raid
More than 30 Dyker Heights residents were displaced over the weekend after city officials raided and placed an immediate vacate order on their illegally converted home.
Upon arrival Thursday evening, August 4, FDNY and Department of Buildings (DOB) inspectors found that a two-family house at 6705 Seventh Avenue had been subdivided into a five-family dwelling. Riddled with safety hazards that ranged from lack of egress, or exits, to compromised plumbing, electrical and gas work, to extreme overcrowding, the home was deemed unfit for its tenants, who were subsequently forced out of the building.
The American Red Cross was left to relocate the displaced residents – 18 adults and 13 children – to a nearby Days Inn for up to three days. At the end of those three days, finding those tenants new housing becomes the responsibility of the city.