ROCHESTER, N.Y. – About 50 senior and disabled residents of Hudson Ridge and Danforth Towers fear they will soon be homeless after the Enriched Housing Program that helps care for them announced it’s shutting down. However, city officials say the residents do not have to move and any attempt to evict them with just a week’s notice is completely illegal.
The Enriched Housing Program was run by a non-profit called Family Service of Rochester, hired by the New York State Department of Health. Family Service of Rochester was supposed to take residents’ Social Security and disability checks to pay their rent, utilities, and provide other supportive services. Rent was supposed to be paid to the Rochester Housing Authority.
But the RHA says Family Service is $400,000 behind on rent. Last week, Family Service said the program was closing, and about 50 senior and disabled residents had to get permission from a medical provider to stay, or they had to get out.
City Council member Michael Patterson, who represents those tenants, was fired up.
“And so I told all of my tenants, don’t go anywhere unless you want to go,” Patterson said. “There were staff – I don’t know if they were DOH or whatever, they were literally surrounding little old ladies and telling them you have to leave. And we had to rescue a little old lady from these people, and we told he,r ‘No ma’am. You don’t have to go anywhere. Until there’s an eviction order, you don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to talk to these people. You don’t have to do anything.”
News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean spoke to Ruth Toland-Huff, who has lived in the towers for 12 years. When she spoke to Brean, she was still worried about getting kicked out by tomorrow.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Are you worried that you’re going to have to move somewhere else?”
Ruth Toland-Huff: “Yes, definitely worried. I don’t want to go anywhere. I was going to make this, hopefully, my last place to live.”
Berkeley Brean: “You paid your rent on time all the time, is that right?”
Ruth Toland-Huff: “Yes, sir, every month.”
Berkeley Brean: “What has this whole situation done to you emotionally?”
Ruth Toland-Huff: “Well, I’m pretty upset, and it usually takes me a while to get that way. But I thought everything was secure here. We all did. None of us knew what was going on. Maybe the people in power knew, but we didn’t. No inkling at all.”
Berkeley Brean: “And now you’re left holding the bag.”
Ruth Toland-Huff: “Exactly, for what they did. Not for anything we did.”
Ruth showed News10NBC a letter she and every other tenant like her received from Family Service Communities last week. It warned that the program ends this Saturday and provided a list of low-income housing they can move to.
The Rochester Housing Authority wants to deliver the message loud and clear – they are not evicting these residents, and they do not have to leave.
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Rochester Housing Authority: They are not evicting residents of Hudson Ridge and Danforth Towers and they do not have to move WHEC.com.
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