Dozens of homeless families say their future seems even more uncertain since they were evicted this week from the Longwood apartment building in which they were being sheltered.
Residents of 941 Intervale Ave. have been in a state of shock since shelter operator Aguila Inc. abruptly closed its offices at the five-story tenement and informed the tenants they would be relocated.
“These people don’t care about nobody,” said Antoinette Redman, 43, a blind mother of three who has lived at the site for 18 months. “I want to know what is going to happen, and right now they are not letting us know.”
The privately owned rental building has served as one of hundreds of so-called cluster-site shelters in which the city Department of Homeless Services pays up to $3,565 per month to temporarily house indigent families in rental units.
Representatives from Aguila, a Bronx-based non-profit, refused to address the situation when homeless advocates and reporters visited their Westchester Ave. offices Wednesday, two days after tenants received notice of their departure.
Aguila was run by Robert Hess, a former Homeless Services comissioner who died in January. Former city Controller John Liu flagged the operator in a 2011 audit, citing a litany of mismanagement issues and saying the city paid Aguila $1.2 million more than its listed expenses seemed to justify.
In a follow-up audit, in 2013, Liu noted the city failed to comply with a majority of his earlier recommendations.
A Department of Homeless Services spokesman this week provided little explanation for the eviction. Aguila continues to run more than 40 cluster-site shelters in the Bronx and Manhattan.
“The provider has elected not to continue to work with DHS at this site,” spokesman Christopher Miller said in a statement. “It’s our expectation that all parties involved will act in a responsible manner, so as not to create a stressful environment for these families.”
Residents griped that the aggravation is just starting.
“I have four kids, one more on the way in two weeks,” said Nikkeya Gulley, 31. “I don’t need this much stress, it’s not fair.”
Others worried that they lost their access to confidential documents and materials including casework files, Social Security documents and birth certificates that are locked up in the building’s shuttered offices.
“If somebody breaks the window to get in, they can get all our information,” Adrian Leonard, 43, said.
Parents in the building also fear being transferred to a shelter in another neighborhood, so close to the start of the school year.
“September is coming and we don’t know what school our kids are going to,” said one concerned mother Nicole Mack, 34. “We don’t know what to do.”
With Denis Slattery
