UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (PIX11) — When it rains, it really pours inside an Upper West Side apartment building.
The building, 74-76 West 103rd Street, is nicknamed the “forgotten house,” part of the Frederick Douglass Houses, operated by the New York City Housing Authority.
“Ever since Hurricane Sandy, the roof leaks and my apartment gets flooded,” Connie Taylor told PIX 11.
Connie’s lived alone in this fourth floor walk up in a NYCHA apartment for 50 years.
The 61-year-old suffers from arthritis and scoliosis and has trouble walking, let alone rearranging the buckets to catch all the rain water dripping through her leaky ceilings.
And this has been going for close to two years now, ever since Superstorm Sandy damaged the roof of her building.
“No one should have to live like that,” Connie’s neighbor, Darlene Murphy said, with tears stream down her cheeks. “She pays her rent on time and her apartment gets flooded every time it rains.”
Her next-door neighbor on the fourth floor has it even worse, so bad that her daughter moved her out because she was worried about her mother’s health.
Yet the family still pays the monthly rent of $400, hoping that NYCHA will eventually make the repairs.
“This walk has been like this for two years,” Jennifer Sinclair said, pointing to a completely destroyed wall in her mother’s old apartment. “I had to move my mother out because it wasn’t good for her to be here.”
Carmen Quinones, community advocate, had been hoping the de Blasio administration will finally make the needed repairs.
Residents have complained to NYCHA and the Inspector General, and even the fire department.
But so far, no improvements. They are hoping TV cameras here will bring some action.
