Monday, January 15, 2018

Government slumlords...

Family left to fend for selves by NYCHA after ceiling collapse

The city’s public-housing authority — already under fire for ignoring lead-paint hazards and failing to get heat to freezing tenants — on Sunday left a Brooklyn family to fend for themselves after the ceiling came crashing down.
And when asked why the New York City Housing Authority wasn’t doing more to help this family through the emergency situation — the result of a leak they have been complaining about for more than a year — a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio tried to shift the blame to past administrations.
Daniel Jeter, 43, said his family was forced to endure the latest NYCHA debacle when a long-neglected, overhead water leak showered debris onto his eldest son and the son’s girlfriend around 2 a.m.
Jeter said NYCHA officials offered to temporarily relocate him, his wife and their three kids — including one who suffers from autism — to a smaller, vacant apartment in a housing project about half a mile away.
But adding insult to injury, a NYCHA worker who showed up to move their belongings refused to take anything larger than a television, he said.
Asked about Jeter’s snafu, de Blasio spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie wrote: “This Mayor has given more funding and support to NYCHA than any in recent memory, but there are serious underlying issues that will not be resolved in a few short years.”
“I’m outraged at the mayor,” said Jeter, a cook for the city Department of Education. “He knows what’s going on and he claims NYCHA is a priority but he hasn’t done anything to take care of NYCHA residents. He dropped the ball.”
Wife Tricia Jeter, 43, said, “I understand my home is uninhabitable but for them to just drop us somewhere and let us fend ourselves with no furniture is just a slap in the face, given this whole ordeal.
“We’re probably going to have to go and buy air mattresses if they’re not willing to provide any sleeping materials for us or move our beds,” she added.
Tricia said she’s repeatedly complained since January 2017 about leaks in the family’s three-bedroom, fifth-floor apartment in the Weeksville Gardens complex in Crown Heights.

The family set up buckets to catch the drips from the ceiling, leading to a partial collapse in the living room on Friday.
NYCHA workers slapped up some pieces of plywood to cover that damage, but didn’t bother fixing the real problem, the Jeters said.
On Sunday morning, the entire ceiling in 24-year-old Daniel Jr.’s room came crashing down on him, girlfriend Tytahnisha Moulterie and a friend.
The friend refused medical attention, but both Daniel Jr. and Moulterie were treated for pain at a local hospital.
“Its really a miracle that we didn’t come out with any broken bones,” Moulterie said, adding that she was so shaken up that she vomited.
“We have been asking to fix the damn leak for over a year and they can’t do that but now we got to ask you for a bed? Do we really have to ask them for a bed? If we walk into an empty apartment without a bed its common sense to provide us with a bed,” said Daniel Jeter.
“This is how New York City treats its tenants. There is no compassion whatsoever. This is what you say to me after my child was buried under sheetrock. Ain’t that something. They didn’t even say we’re going to put you up in a hotel. Put they us in an empty apartment with no bed, no chairs and no lights. We had to bring lamps from our apartment because they said the place was just renovated.”
Public Advocate Tish James blasted NYCHA for ignoring the problems and said it “must provide immediate answers for this neglect.”
“Once again NYCHA’s failures to conduct basic upkeep have put residents in harm’s way,” James said.
A NYCHA spokeswoman said workers were trying to find the cause of the leak and hoped to have repairs finished within two weeks.

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