YOUNGSTOWN, OH: Christine Rivera lives, or lived, at International Towers in the downtown district of Youngstown, Ohio. That was until May 28, 2024.
On that day, a large and powerful explosion collapsed the first floor of the 13-story Realty Building, which housed Chase Bank. The blast caused extensive damage to the entire building, killed one bank employee, and injured seven. The explosion was suspected to have been caused by a natural gas leak.
International Towers, located next door to the Realty Building, is a 16-story, income-based apartment building. It provides affordable housing to 173 residents with disabilities and people 62 and older.
Although no damage was sustained at International Towers, residents there were evacuated and displaced due to the possible collapse of the Realty Building.
Rivera was one of those displaced residents, and Mahoning Youngstown Community Action Partnership was one of the many local non-profit organizations that helped residents find housing. MYCAP helps mobilize and utilize resources to increase the quality of life for low-income residents of Mahoning County.
United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley played a significant role in raising money to pay for temporary housing for residents throughout the area.
“Everybody showed up. Everybody wanted to help. Everybody had a piece,” said Bob Hannon, president of United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. “So maybe United Way was the clearinghouse, but we could never have done this alone.”
Hannon apologized if he may have omitted names or organizations that helped, but he mentioned the efforts of:
- Nancy Boyd, executive director of Catholic Charities
- Sheila Triplett, CEO of MYCAP
- The Red Cross
- Duane Piccirilli, executive director of the Mahoning County Mental Health & Recovery Board
- Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA), which provided transportation for the residents.
“They were all part of this solution,” Hannon said.
Hannon added that United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley has a staff of just ten people, which is why the effective collaboration among the local agencies was so important.
“We could have never figured out a way to do this,” Hannon said. “I still feel like maybe we're not doing enough. And right now, the most pressing issue for us is, when can we get them back home?”
That’s the million-dollar question International Towers residents are hoping to get answered soon.
Residents stayed in their homes for more than a week after the Realty Building explosion. Then, on a Friday evening, residents received word that they had just 72 hours to gather possessions and find a place to live.
Most of them were placed in local hotels in the suburb of Boardman, a five-mile drive south, straight down Market Street. Rivera was despondent when she learned they were being forced to leave.
“I cried,” she said. “It was depressing.”
Rivera said she brought her deceased father and mother with her.
“They are in urns. I had to have them with me, to feel secure and safe, knowing they were with me,” Rivera said. I didn’t leave them behind. They were the first ones I packed, besides my dog's necessities. I worried about myself last.”
Rivera had an emotional dog- a mini-doberman pug mix- that needed care. “She’s a part of me. They wanted to put her in a kennel. I said, ‘I can’t be without her, and she can’t be without me. She’s old. She’s ten years old.”
Rivera wasn’t the only International Towers resident with an emotional support animal. Jose Diaz II owned a Tuxedo Cat named Milo, a gift from his sister.
As Diaz spoke, he held up a picture of Milo on his phone. Milo seemed to be posing as if taking a self-portrait, sitting on his hind legs and looking at the camera.
“When I first found out the situation that we had to leave, I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I going to do about my cat? Where am I going to go,” Diaz said.
He learned Animal Charities would keep Milo while MYCAP found him housing. Diaz felt relieved Milo would be in good hands.
Diaz said he routinely visited Milo at Animal Charities to check on his beloved companion.
Rendie Kaufman lived in International Towers and worked at a coffee shop downtown, steps from her building. She said the sight of the Realty Building after the explosion caused her anxiety.
“Of course, we’re all going to have trauma,” Kaufman said. “If we didn’t already have trauma, we got it now. One way or another, we have some kind of PTSD.
Joe Gill said he slept “OK” the first couple of weeks at the hotel. However, he said it got to a point where any noise he heard in the hallway at night kept him up until four or five in the morning.
“I haven’t been able to sleep well,” Gill said. “What sleep I get, it’s not a lot. So I’m irritable…I hope no one says the wrong thing because if they do, I’m liable to go off, and I’m not trying to do that.”
Triplett said the mental issues International Towers residents have experienced are noticeable.
“I can only imagine how traumatic it is to leave your home,” she said. “Going to a hotel is safe, but it’s not home. So your routine and everything you depend on to keep you safe and secure are taken away from you if you are already dealing with some emotional issues that only exemplify them.
“Our number one priority has to be these people,” Triplett continued. “They didn't ask to be in this situation. They’re living in stressful situations anyway, being in a big building. There are people with mental health issues and people with disabilities, so their lives are stressful to begin with. Then this incident happened, and everything they knew as normal doesn't exist anymore.”
Cirell Howard, Community Service Manager with MYCAP, spearheaded the effort to house International Tower residents. “This is a community organization, and I was truly raised to be of service,” she said. “I am compassionate. I love our seniors. I love this community, and anyway I can help, I’m always thinking of that.
“I believe in asking people what they need as opposed to what we think we need.” Sometimes you have to slow down, listen to them, and ask them exactly what they want and what they need.”
Kaufman said she needs just one thing- closure- and soon.
“We’re in limbo. I don’t want to stay in a one-room hotel; I just want to go home,” Kaufman said. “I already suffer from anxiety. It feels claustrophobic. But I’m glad I’m there with most of my friends. But some of us are separated, and I hardly get to talk to them.”
Kaufman paused. She got emotional for a moment, then composed herself.
“I miss them.”
Resident LaKesha Taylor was asked how she has stayed composed through this ordeal. “God first, and then my kids,” she said. “I thank God for always waking me up to see another day and move on the best way I can.”
Rivera, meanwhile, remains optimistic for all the residents.
“I believe we have a wonderful network of people in our family of people who live there,” Rivera said. “We stick together, or at least we try to. When they separated us, it was heartbreaking. I cried. And then I said, ‘You know, we’ll be reunited once again, hopefully soon.”
Watch the LOCAL FOCUS digital/broadcast series, “We Are the Aftermath.”