BALTIMORE, MD (WBFF) — Baltimore’s Penn North neighborhood is recognizable to many by a makeshift landmark — a CVS pharmacy torched during the Freddie Gray unrest of 2015. But just behind that corner store sits another symbol of the city’s struggles: a nondescript, six-story apartment building where at least 62 low-income seniors live in conditions some describe as so dangerous and filthy they say they’re desperate to leave.
Penn North Plaza, built three decades ago as subsidized senior housing and owned by nonprofit Penn North Plaza Inc., has no valid rental license and a long record of citations and unpaid city fines. Residents, elected leaders and others describe rampant drug use and dealing inside and outside the building, spotty security and maintenance, uncooperative managers, broken elevators and pest infestations. Some say city officials — long aware of the problems — did little until tragedy struck.
In early July, 32 people were hospitalized in two mass overdose events in the neighborhood. Only then did the mayor’s office gain access to the senior building, and later that month, it filed a lawsuit against the property…