Apt. isn’t as ‘free’ as he thought
arranged with the help of the nonprofit Black Veterans for Social Justice.
Blakely says he was told he’d never have to pay a dime for the apartment, decorated with red drapes, white walls and blue bedspread.
It seemed the ordained Baptist minister’s prayers had been answered. But his world was turned upside down last year when he reportedly received an eviction notice saying he was behind on rent payments totaling $24,130, according to a new Hamill column published Saturday in the Daily Beast.
“I figured everything was over. Now it isn’t,” Blakely told the Daily News. “This was the first time I’d ever been in a place where I don’t have to pay rent. Now this mess has begun again.”
Officials with Black Veterans for Social Justice argued that Blakely had, in fact, signed a lease, agreeing to pay $778 a month for the apartment after the first year. The fee, they claim, was later reduced to $635.
“When we first put Rev. Blakely into that apartment in 2012 and furnished it for him, it was a one-year rent-free lease,” Wendy McClinton, president and CEO of Black Veterans for Social Justice, told the Daily Beast. “After that, Mr. Blakely and his wife signed documents agreeing to pay rent. They have not. We submitted those documents to the courts.”
Blakely suspects his change in fortune is tied at least in part to the pending sale of the rentstabilized building to a Manhattan developer.
A hearing for the case has been set for Brooklyn Housing Court on Jan. 4, four days before Blakely’s 98th birthday.
In the meantime, the plucky war vet is left fretting over the prospect of losing the home he so dearly covets.
“I lay down at night and don’t know if I’ll have a place to lay down tomorrow night. It’s not a pleasant feeling,” said Blakely, decked out in his warship St. Louis cap. “This is home. It’s a place to live, sleep and cook. I just want my one-bedroom apartment. That’s not a lot to ask.”
He paused. “Where would I go if I’m kicked out of here?”