Norwich — At least 10 adults were displaced late Tuesday afternoon when city building, housing and fire officials condemned a 12-unit rooming house at 41 Boswell Avenue for a multitude of violations, including lack of heat and water and unsanitary conditions.

Assistant Building Official Greg Arpin outlined numerous violations, including a “filthy kitchen with rotted cabinets and sink base,” and lack of heat, water and safe exits, in a two-page letter to building owner James Liang, who owns the building under the firm, James International LLC.

“Building is in extremely poor condition inside and outside,” Arpin wrote. “Several cats living in the basement with foul urine odors.” He wrote that Norwich Fire Marshal Mark Guilot and Uncas Health District inspector David Coughlin attended the inspection and concurred with the condemnation.

The building is a legal rooming house, one of the few permitted as rooming houses in the city.

Liang and his attorney, Edward Bona, met with Arpin and other inspectors late Wednesday and agreed to do a walk-through of the building to review what work needs to be done before it can be reoccupied.

Liang, reached by phone Wednesday evening, declined to comment on the condemnation or plans to correct the problems.

Norwich Human Services social workers spent much of Wednesday working with displaced tenants, securing rooms at the Comfort Suites hotel on Otrobando Avenue through Friday and assisting with other temporary or permanent housing for displaced tenants.

One man, who asked not to be identified, said he has lived in the building for the past seven years and had no place to go. He doubted he could find another apartment or room for the $350 per month he has been paying. The man choked up when he said he was worried about being able to keep his four house cats, who live in his room and are not among the estimated two dozen feral cats living in the basement and surrounding the building.

“I’m not saying he’s a bad landlord,” the man said. “He would wait for the last minute to fix something.”

He said the heat in his unit worked until this year. At times in the past, the furnace would fail, and Liang would “jimmy it” to get it working again.

“I knew someday something like this would happen, the man said, “but I hoped it wouldn’t.”

Several tenants described faulty radiators, frozen water pipes or water systems that simply didn’t work. They said Liang often would ask tenants to serve as building handymen to fix problems. Electricity was such that circuit breakers would trip frequently, and tenants had to go down the steep, narrow basement stairs to flip the switches. They learned to unplug refrigerators to run microwave ovens or hot plates to warm food.

Many doors throughout the building were bent, broken, or didn’t fit the frames, leaving wide gaps at the top.

Doors in a rooming house must have self-closing hinges to prevent fire from spreading, Arpin said. He found one door with a missing doorknob jury-rigged with a rope tied into a loop.

A man named Jerry said the old style steam radiators frequently had problems.

“I never saw a hot water valve shoot off and hit the ceiling before,” Jerry said. He said a plumber came a few weeks ago and capped off a broken water pipe that served a toilet, rendering the toilet inoperable.

Terry Olszanecki lived in the building in one rented room, while her son and his fiancée lived in another room. Olszanecki said she complained several months ago about bed bugs in her room and she had to hire an exterminator and deduct the cost from her rent. She said her heat “worked on and off.”

Olszanecki has two indoor cats and also does not want to give them up. She left large bowls of water and a food dispenser for them Tuesday and hoped to check on them Wednesday.

Olszanecki and her son, both on Social Security disability, hope to find an apartment in the area for themselves, her son’s fiancée and the man who has lived in the house for the past seven years.

“We’re not going to leave this guy out in the cold,” the woman’s son said.

The tenants praised the work of Norwich Human Services social workers Wednesday for helping them secure the hotel rooms temporarily and working with the for permanent housing after Friday.

“If Human Services wasn’t here, we’d be up (a) creek,” one man said. “They are going out of their way to help.”

“They’re an invaluable resource for those who don’t have much to their name,” another said.

Norwich Human Services Director Lee Ann Gomes said 10 tenants from eight of the rental units have contacted her office seeking assistance. Other tenants have moved in with friends or family.

Human Services officials referred the tenants to homeless shelters in the region, but Gomes immediately arranged for rooms at the Comfort Suites until Friday to make sure no one ended up homeless.

“We will refer them to shelters,” Gomes said. “We did homeless intake interviews, but shelters are crowded. There’s a storm coming. I’m not going to take a chance that they’d be put on a waiting list.”

Gomes also pledged that “no one will be homeless on Friday” once the hotel stays end. She has contacted local landlords and will help tenants find permanent housing. The city would assist with relocation costs and would place a lien on the property to recover the cost from the building owner.

c.bessette@theday.com