Tuesday, January 16, 2018

NYCHA places family in apartment filled with toilet water

NYCHA places family in apartment filled with toilet water

A Brooklyn family displaced by NYCHA neglect woke up Monday on the floor of an unfurnished apartment — with a toilet leaking so badly that the mom had to sop up the mess with her clothing.
While the city spends $15 million or more per month on hotel rooms for homeless people, the New York City Housing Authority crammed working parents Daniel and Tricia Jeter and their three kids into a two-bedroom temporary unit following a ceiling collapse caused by water leaks it repeatedly ignored over the past year.
NYCHA then left the Jeters to fend for themselves. A sympathetic superintendent moved their TV and a few other possessions in the pickup truck he usually uses to haul trash.
Modal Trigger
G.N.Miller
Without any furniture, the Jeters were forced to bed down inside their substitute Crown Heights apartment on comforters, including one borrowed from a grandmother.
“It was rough. I haven’t slept on the floor all my life before tonight,” fumed Tricia, 43.
Tricia caught about three hours of shut-eye before awakening to the memory of the cave-in that showered debris on her son Daniel Jr., 24, and his girlfriend, Tytahnisha Moulterie, 22, early Sunday.
The Jeters’ middle child, Devante, a 22-year-old with autism, was also freaked out.
“Changes are tough. I had to take him to my mother’s house yesterday to calm him down,” Tricia said.
They also didn’t have a mop to clean up the overflow from the busted toilet in their new apartment in NYCHA’s Howard Avenue-Park Place complex.
“That’s my clothes from yesterday — my dirty clothes — just to keep the water from going into the hallway,” Tricia said while pointing out the mess.
NYCHA sent a worker to fix the plumbing on Monday, and claimed that the Jeters refused an offer of help in moving their furniture — infuriating Tricia.
“No one from NYCHA even brought up the conversation of moving my furniture. I was the one who brought up the conversation of providing us with cots or air mattresses, and I was told, ‘No, we can’t do that,’ ” she said.
Tricia and Daniel, also 43, both work for the city school system, so she and her daughter Nel, 17, took advantage of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and took a 45-minute bus ride to Atlantic Terminal Mall.
There, Tricia got a call from NYCHA referring her to the Administration for Children’s Services, which offered to deliver four full-size beds sometime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Nevertheless, she spent bought a pair of queen-sized air mattresses and three pillows to avoid another night on the floor.
“And also, it’s just something for the future. Who knows what NYCHA has in store?” she said.
In a statement, NYCHA said, “Our staff are making repairs in both apartments today and offering again to move furniture to the temporary apartment.”

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