Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bloomberg sends homeless to live in squalor

From the NY Times:

An inspection of dozens of apartments where the city houses homeless families revealed leaking pipes, water damage, doors without locks, a stained bathtub and infestations of mice and roaches, according to an audit released Friday.

Chenoa Hart, who lives at 1175 Walton Avenue with her two daughters, said she had seen mice in her home for months.

The audit, conducted by the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., included one Midtown hotel and six so-called cluster housing sites — apartment buildings with social services nearby — in the Bronx.

“The conditions in which these families lived were completely deplorable, and so I immediately brought them to the attention of the Department of Homeless Services,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement. “It is totally unacceptable that families in need are living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions under the city’s watch.”


And with the City's Department of Homeless Services allowing shady companies with no history, like the Queens Alliance (which has no real address, just a phony one in Brooklyn), to open transient shelters for drug and alcohol addicts, there are sure to be many more problems down the road.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

And speaking of the disease that stretches all over NYC that is the double speak of bloomberg, check out the new Tom Robbins article in the Village Voice talking about NYC TV 25 and bloomie looking the other way when they make money disappear via Arick Wierson a former campaign aide for bloomberg at NYC TV. Its basically half the time just a promotion for him anyways.
He sure tries to control his local media just like Murdoch,Berlusconi, and Putin. How convenient.

ceiling on my head lady said...

They should live like I did. No heat in the winter for days at a time. No stove for two years, and a partially-functioning ovenless stove now. No access to my mail. No hot water. A broken toilet above me that dripped sewage on my head, covered my ceiling with mold and filled my light fixtures with water.

Prosecute the Bloomberg administration, the Department of Buildings and the Housing Preservation Department of New York City.

Anonymous said...

Compared to living on the streets, I guess that Bloomberg sees this as an improvement.

faster340 said...

I am sorry but the disgusting environment is totally blamed on the city? The people who live there don't have any responsibility in cleanliness? This only means that the city is going to pay taxpayer dollars to do cleaning that a lot of these people can and should be doing themselves.

Anonymous said...

at least he is gassing them as he did to thousands of innocent geese.

Lino said...

"This only means that the city is going to pay taxpayer dollars to do cleaning that a lot of these people can and should be doing themselves."

Another genius. Here, read this:

http://www.rentlaw.com/ny/habitability.htm

All that having been said, the picture shows obvious spray paint damage (excuse me...aerosol art) and the harsh chemicals often used to remove it.

My Brother who worked for two Mayors has told of inspecting these sorts of places (sec 8 and SRO)There is near equal culpability of landlord-tenant.

However, the City pays a premium to these landlords for the purpose of covering the extra maintenance that these places require (due to uncivilized occupants and bad areas) and there is no excuse for -unsafe- conditions.

faster340 said...

Oh yeah. I bet these tenants are doing all they can to keep the place clean, NOT!!! I lived in a building where if there was one apt. who wasn't being kept clean and got roaches and mice WE ALL GOT ROACHES AND MICE! And we had pest control once a month.

Once the offending non apt. cleaning individual moves out the problem went with them.

"Tenants are entitled to a livable, safe and sanitary apartment. Lease provisions inconsistent with this right are illegal."

"Any uninhabitable condition caused by the tenant or persons under his direction or control does not constitute a breach of the warranty of habitability."

So I guess these transient people who live in these apartments are doing their very best to keep the place up. They aren't breaking anything or causing harm to the building? Yah ok go smoke some more dope if you think otherwise!!!

"Sanitary"? hhhmmmm maybe I can ask the city to come clean my house on tax payer dime.

I definitely agree with having to make appropriate physical repairs. I was talking about the insect and rodent infestation and the lack of some people who don't clean up their apartments.

Bottom line if the tenant has no ownership or personal stake in where they live then they won't have a tendency to keep their place as clean as possible. "Why should I? I don't own it and the city will take care of it/me for free"

I can almost always point out a rental property. For the most part they always look like shit!

c said...

And what will your "cleaning" do when the floors are sagging or have holes? Or when there is no gas, or hot water, or malfunctioning toilets leaking on your head? Your apartment will be spic n' span and you will be a corpse lying in the middle of it.

The other day, I read about a woman whose 2-year old child was bitten by rats. Do you suppose that she was raising them in the bathtub as pets.

When my landlord did his slapdash surface renovations in my apartment, he left my apartment full of holes in the walls, floors and ceilings. One day, I saw a big mouse peeping out at me from the floor, and I live near the river, where there are rats. I hope that you live under terrible conditions yourself someday.

Renting out apartments is a business, not a charity. And when you run a business, you provide the services you are paid to provide. Otherwise do something else.