BALTIMORE — A sudden collapse, a ton of damage, and it all came down to paperwork. It's tempting to avoid the city's red tape when it comes to remodeling homes - it's cheaper, it's faster - but as this incident shows us, it can also have drastic consequences.
"Someone could've easily gotten hurt," one person said.
Luckily, no one did.
But looking at these pictures, it's easy to imagine what could have happened if someone had been sitting on one of these porches, when three of the roofs came tumbling down.
The roofs of 3 rowhome porches collapsed in East Baltimore. Residents tell @odetteramos it was caused by shoddy work done by a contractor - work the homeowner never got a permit for. How the city plans to make sure this doesn’t happen again, tonight at 5&6pm. @WMAR2News pic.twitter.com/4BmuL1tH8t
— Elizabeth Worthington (@ElizWorthNews) September 7, 2023
"It is scary," said Honey Saunders, who lives on the same block as the collapse.
It happened earlier this week on Gorsuch Avenue in East Baltimore.
City Councilwoman Odette Ramos caught wind of it, and got to the bottom of what happened.
Turns out, it was due to shoddy contractor work.
"They were doing work without permits, working at night, and doing the porch incorrectly, which then caused all three porches to fall," Ramos said.
Her office is looking into whether penalties for doing work without permits need to be enhanced. She says the permit office as a whole is in need of reform. But homeowners and contractors also need to be vetted, and then held accountable.
"We do know that contractors are working without permits and that is something that is completely unacceptable. I understand that our permit office has work to do to make sure the process is much more efficient, but there's a reason to do this and that is, when people move into a property that they're going to be safe," Ramos said.
People who live in this neighborhood feel reassured that the city isn't ignoring this problem.
"I'm glad that someone is concerned. Someone has to be concerned when things like this happen, so they won't happen again," Tony said.
"They do a lot of work on houses, maybe a lot of people don't get permits. So I guess they need to check everybody," Saunders said.
Councilwoman Ramos said this is also a huge problem with vacant homes. She says as many as 10% of the vacant homes in her district are fully rehabbed, but the contractor's work was never approved, so the property is still listed as vacant, and there could be other problems with the property the home-buyer isn't aware of.
Ramos says this isn't a problem that will be fixed overnight, but pledges it's one the city won't ignore.