A structural engineer hired by the company that manages the Sunset apartment building on Broad Avenue across from the Jaffa Shrine Center has advised the firm that the building is unsafe for its former occupants to enter until it’s stabilized with “temporary bracing or engineered shoring,” according to a letter the firm sent to those former tenants Friday.

“It’s not the news I wanted to hear,” said Carol Adams, who left the building on July 17 after the city condemned the structure — which has nine units, seven of which were occupied at the time. Some of her family’s belongings remain in her former apartment, including some from each of her three children and her stepson, and she’d like to get the stuff out, she said.

The structural engineer made the pronouncement to manager ALT Realty Group on Thursday, after there was an initial delay obtaining the engineer’s services, according to ALT broker Allen Thompson, who provided the Mirror with a copy of the letter sent to tenants.

The insurance company that covers the building for its owner will be sending its own structural engineer to the site next week “to assess what the next steps are,” Thompson wrote in an email.

The five-course-thick brick wall on the left side of the building has bowed out alarmingly, Thompson said the day after the building was evacuated.

“Something is shifting very, very fast,” Thompson said at the time.

The week before, bricks had come off the wall between two windows on the first floor on that side, near the back, which led to an examination by the city codes office and the subsequent condemnation, according to Thompson.

On the morning of the day when the tenants were ordered out, residents were bringing items through the front door and putting them into rental moving vans parked in two rows out front.

Since then, Adams and her family — the kids range in age from 1 to 14 — have moved into half a double house on Fourth Avenue near Penn Lincoln Elementary School.

Adams doesn’t plan to return to the Sunset, except to retrieve the family belongings, which include Apple brand dishes that represent memories of her father and grandmother, both deceased.

Community Action provided Adams with her first month’s rent and the security deposit for the new place.

ALT had refunded her security deposit and what remained on July’s rent at the Sunset, which is on the 2200 block.

Adams is hoping that Community Action will help her get some furniture for the new place, she said.

Community Action helped some of the former tenants obtain housing, while friends and neighbors provided shelter for others, said Community Action Executive Director Wendy Melius.

“We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we prioritize your safety in this matter,” ALT stated in its letter to tenants.