Sunday, December 11, 2011

City downsizing senior citizens' apartments

From the Times Ledger:

Lawmakers blasted the city Monday for its policy of forcing residents as old as 90 out of their longtime homes in Pomonok Houses to make space for larger families.

In the middle of last month, the New York City Housing Authority sent out letters to some residents of the complex, at 67-10 Parsons Blvd., informing them that they had to leave their homes. If they did not request a smaller apartment by Dec. 5, they would risk being moved anywhere in the borough.

Lila Poris has lived in the same apartment for 51 years. She and her husband raised two children in the two-bedroom unit, but the younger generation moved out long ago to start families of their own and her husband died about five years ago.

“My whole life is tied up here,” said the 84-year-old woman, who just had a hip replacement and now lives alone in an apartment that used to house a family of four. “It’s criminal.”

In mid-November she — along with what politicians estimate is 200 others in the complex — received the letter from NYCHA explaining that her apartment was underused and she was required under her lease to move to a smaller unit so another family could occupy her unit.

A subsequent letter said much of the same thing, but ended with a bold-face sentence: “If you do not submit the completed Tenant Request for Transfer indicating your transfer choice within the next ten days, you will be placed on a waiting list for the first appropriate size apartment that becomes available in your borough; you will not have any choice.”

37 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

It's collectivist housing. You do what the collective tells you to do.

Anonymous said...

it appears that obama's (I.P.A.B.) death panel idea for senior healthcare has reached the planners at the N.Y.C housing authority .

Hi-JACK seniors health care benefits by $500,000,000. Billion and then kick them out of their life long dwellings.

What an Obama /progressive nyc council act of civility and human kindness.

Anonymous said...

51 years in Pomonok? Isn't that low income housing? So her and her husband were low income all that time? I seem to be missing something here...

Anonymous said...

Blaming President Obama for this is a long shot. Maybe it is time to move to a smaller apartment. After all this isn't even a rent stabilized building, it's public housing. If you want to own your living quarters you must buy your living quarters...

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I don't see the problem here. If you're living on the taxpayer's dime for FIFTY ONE YEARS (?!?!?!?) and you no longer have the need for a second bedroom, get out. If you want two bedrooms, go pay for it yourself somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

"it appears that obama's (I.P.A.B.) death panel idea for senior healthcare has reached the planners at the N.Y.C housing authority .


Gramps is at it again.

There are no "death panels" in Obama's health care law...But -you- do make a good case for retroactive birth control.

-----------------

As for the issue at-hand, perhaps a more humane compromise would be a voluntary scheme where seniors with spare bedrooms could opt to allow other tenants that they know move in with them.

Old people who live with others tend to live longer.

Since most of these people are actually paying rent based on approx 33% of monthly income, the housing authority might consider making that based on only one person's income thus giving both participants more disposable income each month.

Incentives work..Bullying does not.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, she lives in public housing, then acts like she owns the place? She doesn't. The needs of the public housing system supersede her desire for sentiment. She lives alone and doesn't need a 2 bedroom house living on the public dole. If she wants to live alone in a 2 bedroom then she can go buy one, or rent elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Move into one of the HANAC senior blockbusters in Astoria and free up a 5 room railroad flat for a 'New American' family.... or two.

Anonymous said...

These stories never report (a) the square footage of the "two bedroom apartment", (b) what the current NYCHA rent is, and (c) what the market rate for the equivalent apartment is.

The sad part is that at some point Lila Poris came to believe that she, and not her landlord, the City, got to call the shots here, as if through some sort of magic, this public housing became her coop and she's holding a deed to it.

Anonymous said...

government bureaucrats must not force the 84 and 90 year olds,some ill and widows /widowers, to relocate. wait them out in their final years on this earth.

this act by progressive gov. could speed up their deaths.
where is the humanity and liberalism in this evil act ?

is this a gov. scheme to fill these apartments with illegal aliens with fake documents and anchor babies from Asia,Africa and S.America ?

call your Democrat/Liberal Governor A.Cuomo. He was a failed expert on sub-prime lending to (NINANJ) fake owners,while Sec. of H.U.D., under W.J.Clinton. Dodd and Frank are out of Gov, and so should he be gone.

Anonymous said...

Andrew Cuomo is going to be in one elected office or another for a long time to come, Gramps. Moreover, you know that.

The reason why President Clinton left office in 2000 was term limits and term limits alone. You think that he wouldn't have won if he could have run again?

Ned said...

"The needs of the public housing system supersede her desire"

Bullshit ! Not when the so called "public" are illegal aliens.
Illegal aliens not members of the public, they werent born here and never immigrated.
These people are criminals who are trespassing in this country !
Illegal aliens deserve NOTHING more then mandatory birth control and detention camp to work one way fare costs back to the turd world cesspools they came from !!!!

Anonymous said...

You're missing the point.

Regardless of what her lease states....it's seems rather cold to turn out the elderly....pulling them from their comfort zones....ripping their lifelong memories from them while they're still drawing breath.

Can't NYC wait until the woman gently passes on 'til they turn over her apartment to some drug dealers?

How many years does she have left,
anyway?

This "death notice" will, most likely, shorten her earthly lease.

And don't bother to call me "gramps"....I'm only 38 years old!

I think it's time for showing some compassion.

Anonymous said...

I think you mean
Bush's death squad, #2.

After the wealthy Republican overlords have sucked you dry, they transport you to the trash pile.

Monty Python:
"Bring out your dead".

And throw out your almost dead!

Anonymous said...

Yawn...
that's right jerk wads...
everything's always Obama's fault.

If you're so damn smart,
why ain't YOU president of anything besides (perhaps) your bowling league?

LOL!

I just "love" all these beer chugging...arm chair advisers...
back to the 1950s...throw backs.

Like the USA was doin' "fine" before Obama?

Archie,
maybe "The Wizard" will give you a brain.

Anonymous said...

"government bureaucrats must not force the 84 and 90 year olds...."

I see Gramps; old people are sacrosanct -everybody else fends for themselves.

If you want the genesis of the current situation -look to your gop and one Rudolph Guiliani.

The Bruno-Pataki axis weakened rent regulations in 1997 leading to the loss of some 300K affordable apts, the 2008-present economic collapse was caused by the 1999 effective repeal of Glass-Steagal which allowed banks to become casinos...

And finally your mayor Guiliani who quietly insisted on the sale of over 2200 City-owned land parcels -some of which had been under consideration for additional Public Housing sites.

Add those -facts- up and granny is up against it.

A cruel irony is that many of these old people were fooled into voting for republicans due to fear and prejudice...I guess they thought that only those they disliked would suffer.

Queens Crapper said...

"I see Gramps; old people are sacrosanct -everybody else fends for themselves."

The point of helping seniors is not that they're sacrosanct (It's only in the minds of Dems that they are because they are the biggest voting block in the city), but because they are vulnerable. The able-bodied adults ARE supposed to fend for themselves.

Anonymous said...

Yo...dumb ass...
YOU TOO will grow old and die!

Tempis fugit.

Then let's see if your Spartan stance will hold up when your voice can barely be heard above your death rattle!

Anonymous said...

Yes, there is a "crime" here. Living 51 years on the taxpayer, and then bitching about it, because you're asked to downsize.

Anonymous said...

I don't buy the "vulnerable" senior thing. They've lived long lives at taxpayer expense, and they know it.

Anonymous said...

And if you ever worked with seniors, you would know that major disruptions in their living arrangements can lead to increased confusion which becomes a downward spiral that hastens their death. To be honest, I would rather subsidize someone who lived their entire lives humbly but honestly than some 3rd generation welfare trash which is what probably will inherit her apartment.

Anonymous said...

So when you become a "burden" on the taxpayers (or your family) why not do the right thing when I gently place the trusty ol' "service revolver" in your hands?

"KA-BLOOOOOIE"!

I'll pay for the clean up.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some perverted Ayn Rand suck-up is on an elder bashing binge.

You must have really hated your grandma for doing something to you when you were young.

Anonymous said...

While you are busy discriminating
against a senior citizen's human right to live out their lives in warm, comfortable familiar surroundings...

do you also propose that governments should euthanize the elderly...thus reducing the strain on taxpayers for "costly" medicare, social security, etc. expenditures ?

You are one cold fish!

Go and get yourself some help ol' buddy. You're a wigged-out hater!

georgetheatheist said...

The seen vs. the unseen.

How do you know that the bigger family getting the elderly woman's 2 bedroom apartment doesn't have kids in wheelchairs? Highly in need of that space?

Anonymous said...

RE: #16....the repeal of the Glass -Steagall Act of 1999 was approved by a vote of 90-8,in the U.S.Senate, and 362-57 in the House of Representatives and signed by, then impeached and disbarred , Democrat, President W.J.Clinton.

the vote expresses great democrat approval of this law in congress.

in JULY ,2010 Obama signed the DODD/FRANK bill into law,while the democrats controlled the House of Reps., the U.S.Senate and the W.H.

and then the political S--T hit the fan ,and 61 Dem.House of Reps. were fired by the voters in November,2010.

many voters claim the rise of the(TEA PARTY) TAX ENOUGH ALREADY PATRIOTS are responsible.

the people never forget at election time.

from polling Q.C.commenters i see you have lost again. for the confirmation of above see :WIKIPEDIA.

Anonymous said...

George,
then they can move into "Sky View Parc".

It's a bust, so why not convert it into needed public housing?

Anonymous said...

Let's see if George (QC's Godless wise-ass) willingly downsizes to occupy a small housing unit when his time comes without kicking and screaming.

Ultimately, he will occupy an even smaller space, approximately 4' X 6'
with poor drainage.

I hope it's big enough to also contain his oversize ego.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 26:

Who have you polled?

The only thing that I think you've won is a functional illiteracy contest.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if in 1960, Lila Poris, her husband, and her two children would have cheerfully accepted 600 square feet, in order to have a handful of seniors living alone keep their 1500 square feet apartments.

Since 1960, her family could have moved - purchased or rented with a lease that would not permit the landlord to order her to vacate. She didn't and now it's time to face the reality of that NYCHA subsidized housing lease.

Think of the children.

Anonymous said...

the murder numbers in nyc (five boroughs)while koch/dinkins were mayors rose to 2500 per year.

with Rudy's leadership,the NYPD's Jack Maple and Comm.Bratton and troops reduced this number to 400 murders per year.

the elderly could not walk the streets of NYC, with out getting mugged,raped,and murdered.

that is why they voted for Rudy....

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 31:

Who was responsible for all of those police officers being in place to make Rudy and Maple look good?

georgetheatheist said...

"...but the younger generation moved out long ago to start families of their own..."

Hello? Lila Poris has adult 2 kids and they're not putting their heads together to help out mamma? It's kid payback time, buckaroos.

Whatever happened to "family values"? Hey mom, they're going to pack your stuff up neatly, give the schmattas to the Salvation Army, throw out your paper bag and napkin collection, and then gently put you in a nice smaller apartment. With a brand new paint job and updated kitchen appliances and cabinets!

Anonymous said...

Solution:

She can adopt a kid and then she can't be moved.

Anonymous said...

if the NYCHA can place these elderly in smaller dwellings in their local building complex,that would be humane.

to relocate to another section of Queens or the five boroughs will be too traumatic for citizens at their ages.

many elderly parents retain their independence from their siblings ,who can offer space in their homes.

the elderly keep close to their places of worship,friends,stores and walking distant shopping.

the authorities can be patient for the remaining years of the senior 80-90's lives.

Gopal Krishnan said...

NYC housing authorities should be more considerate towards the seniors and as far as possible leave them along so that they can live peacefully.

Anonymous said...

If there are so many families in need of large apartments why did NYCHA spend millions on a new one bedroom only building in Pomonok? Why didn't they build 2-3 bedrooms there? Seems an issue only in Pomonok since it used to be the "best" project why are they so detrmined to ruin the last good one left? Seniors, defiantely over 80 at least, need to be left alone as it is tramatic for them to move at that age with no help and no money. Why can't Pomonok wait till they die like they did for so many years? When they die then have the fmailies move in-not many years for them left but NYCHA is making thier time left less to make a buck more when section 8 family moves in. For those saying move do you even know how bad it is there and dangerous in recent years? When old folks die off they move in drug dealers, filthy slobs most times. Not saying all are by any means as I grew up there but back in the 60's it was a far different world than today. Yes I like many who grew up there escaped but leave the elderly seniors alone and let them die in peace. How can people sleep knowing they made seniors upset and cut years off thier lives worrying about this horrible notice they got?