ROOF CAVES IN ON NYCHA
Ceiling collapses on family after gripes ignored
Toxic paint and no heat not bad enough? How about your ceiling crashing in on you? That’s what happened to NYCHA tenant Daniel Jeter Jr. (above) and his family in Brooklyn after their complaints that it was leaking went unheeded for a year, they said.
The city’s public-housing authority — already under fire for ignoring lead-paint hazards and failing to get heat to freezing tenants — on Sunday left a Brooklyn family to fend for themselves after their ceiling came crashing down.
And when asked why the New York City Housing Authority wasn’t doing more to help the family through the emergency situation — the result of a leak they had complained about for more than a year — a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio tried to shift the blame to past administrations.
Daniel Jeter, 43, said his family was forced to endure the latest NYCHA debacle when the long-neglected leak caused the ceiling to give way, showering debris onto his son and the son’s girlfriend at around 2 a.m.
Jeter said NYCHA officials offered to temporarily relocate him, his wife and their three children — including one who suffers from autism — to a smaller, vacant apartment in a housing project about half a mile away. But, adding insult to injury, a NYCHA worker who showed up to move their belongings refused to take anything larger than a television, the dad said. The family was moved to a bare apartment with just a couch cushion to sit on.
Asked about the situation, de Blasio spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie wrote, “This Mayor has given more funding and support to NYCHA than any in recent memory, but there are serious underlying issues that will not be resolved in a few short years.”
“I’m outraged at the mayor,” said Jeter, a cook for the city Department of Education. “He knows what’s going on and he claims NYCHA is a priority but he hasn’t done anything to take care of NYCHA residents. He dropped the ball.”
His wife, Tricia Jeter, 43, said, “I understand my home is uninhabitable, but for them to just drop us somewhere and let us fend for ourselves with no furniture is just a slap in the face.
“We’re probably going to have to go and buy air mattresses if they’re not willing to provide any sleeping materials for us or move our beds.”
Their 21-year-old son, Devante, who has autism, was so uncomfortable in the new apartment he was taken to stay with his grandmother, the family said.
Tricia said she has complained since January 2017 about leaks in the family’s three-bedroom, fifth-floor apartment in the Weeksville Gardens complex in Crown Heights.
They set up buckets to catch the drips from the ceiling, and there was a partial collapse in the living room on Friday.
NYCHA workers slapped up pieces of plywood to cover that damage, but didn’t bother fixing the real problem, the Jeters said.
Then Sunday morning, the entire ceiling in 24-year-old Daniel Jr.’s room fell down on him, girlfriend Tytahnisha Moulterie and a friend.
The friend refused medical attention, but Daniel Jr. and Moulterie were treated for pain at a hospital.
“It’s really a miracle that we didn’t come out with any broken bones,” Moulterie said.
Daniel Sr. said, “We have been asking to fix the damn leak for over a year and they can’t do that, but now we got to ask you for a bed? Do we really have to ask them for a bed?”
Public Advocate Letitia James blasted NYCHA for ignoring the problems and said the agency “must provide immediate answers for this neglect.”
A NYCHA spokeswoman said workers were trying to find the cause of the leak and hoped to finish the repairs within two weeks.