Osage Avenue residents protest to Philadelphia council members

Osage Avenue residents whose homes burned down in the 1985 MOVE standoff are now fighting for a bigger settlement because of poor construction for their new homes.

Osage Avenue residents whose homes burned down in the 1985 MOVE standoff are now fighting for a bigger settlement because of poor construction for their new homes.

More than a dozen homeowners say the settlement offered by the city in the year 2000, of $150,000 dollars including moving costs, isn’t enough. Gerald Renfrow is the block captain of the 6200 block of Osage Avenue. He says the rebuilding of the burned out homes was a disaster, resulting a multiple building code violations and now the homes are a white elephant they want replaced.

“We cannot pursue our happiness,” Renrow said “because they’ve taken away our property values with A-1 credit we cannot borrow 5 cents on our paid-off houses because of the situation the city has left us in.”

Thirty-seven took the settlement offered under Mayor John Street, but Renfrow says he and about a dozen other families don’t want to leave the neighborhood. The group met with Mayor Michael Nutter who assured them of a meeting with the city solicitor on the issue.