|
Corruption in Hud and abuse of the disabled tenants
|
By Patricia Sears
[Hits: 17085]
|
|
Elderly and disabled tenants in Hud funded properties are atrisk of neglect and abuse under the new Hud tax-credit financingprogram. A prime example is The HUD Transaction Of The Year For2005 called by its new name Victory Tower located in TakomaPark,MD. For more than two years prior to settlement the tenantswere severely abused by the management company ShelterProperties as they prepared for the upcoming purchase andpartial renovation by ensuring that all tenants who exercisetheir rights or complain about code violations are forced out orverbally and physically abused into submission. The new ownerVictory Housing did not want any tenant to interfer with whatthey already knew would be an award winning deal. Everything wasall arranged by Hud in its varios programs to spend $12.1million financing the purchase of this property from MontgomeryCounty and a partial remodeling of this 12 story senior anddisabled building. No one bothered to plan for the safety of thetenants during the remodeling for they all thought that so manyof them would die off before the work began that is wasn't worthbothering about.
Prior to settlement in December of 2003 the county tried to doan illegal asbestos removal using hispanic teenagers who did notknow any english and whose only protections were plastic wraptaped to their sleeves and a 50 cent mask. Tenants were allupset for many were coughing and taking mysteriosly illespecially when they went into the work areas which at that timewas mainly the 12th floor. Asbestos removal work was being donein apartments that were occupied and no precautions were beingtaken except to ask the tenant to leave and to stay out foratleast two hours after the work was done. All of the tenantsfurniture, clothing, food etc. were exposed and no clean up wasever done. The asbestos materials were removed from the buildingby the main elevator without any precautions and this is alsothe elevator that is used to distribute food trays to thebedridden. Management would not stop even when many tenantscomplained so I called the Washington Post and spoke to areporter who never wrote about it but did atleast call themanager, Michael Coles to inquire as to what was going on. Thatphone call caused all such operations to cease immediately andthe whole crew ran out of here like rats leaving a sinking ship.I was already targeted by management for abuse because I hadhelped the tenant council years before get information thatwould help them win a racial discrimination complaint with theMontgomery County Human Rights Commission. I had right after thehurricane here in Maryland in 2003 gotten channel 9 news to comeout and do a story on how we were surffering without electicityand how some seniors had fallen and been hurt. During theirvisit the back-up generator stopped working and chaos began.Management hated me for this and tore into me something awful. Iwas afraid to leave my apartment and more afraid to stay in italone.
During the actual renovation of 2004 the whole building had tobe moved about so that the work could be done 1/2 floor at atime starting again with the 12th. The noise, fumes andvibrations were unbearable off and on for more than a year andit was mostly on, even working on weekends and starting at 6am.Much of the work had to be redone over and over again becausethey just simply did not know what they were doing and theremodeler had hired the cheapest labor he could get and then ifany training was given it was just task training with nosupervision nor followup inspections. Many times hallways wereblocked and debris was in the hallway that could hurt your feet.Fumes would suddenly without notice just come from the floorabove making the tenants have to flee their home instantly. Menwould be hanging off scaffolding by your window without notice.Hammering and drilling in many places all at once gave thetenants no where to hide from the irritating noises and thiswould be for the whole day. Some of the work was on a largescale and caused vibrations through large parts of the buildingagain without notice. To a heart patient these vibrations couldbe potentially deadly. They terrified me and it was because myheart could not beat properly at these times.
All tenants were supposed to get all the help they needed topack and move but no help was given. If you were not ready onmoving day your stuff was just tossed in a bin like trash andthen dumped out on your bed or floor. The first moving companybroke and stole alot of things and no tenant was compensated.They were eventually fired for sexual harrassment. The secondmoving company was even worse. They were criminals who freelythreatened violence against the disabled for by this timemanagement was stomping on not only everyone's rights butliterally on everyone to shut up and bow down or else whichmeant unlawful eviction or violence or both. It was a disasterand many tenants were ill with high blood pressure by nowbecause of all the unnecessary trouble instead of professionalservice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
