Formerly Homeless Residents Demand Mayor Fulfill Promise For Help

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK -- Formerly homeless residents who face imminent eviction hope Mayor Bill de Blasio will break a years-long silence and help them fight for the right to remain in their homes.

"We want Mayor de Blasio to do what he promised and get us leases," said Tashawn Sutherland, 46, a mother of two. "He needs to keep his word, somebody has to be accountable."

Residents of 250 Clarkson Ave. were joined by attorneys, activists and City Councilman Jumaane Williams to demand aid from the mayor days Monday morning, days after a Brooklyn justice ruled rent-stabilization laws did not protect them from eviction.

Williams called on de Blasio to fulfill his 2017 promise to use eminent domain — the governmental right to seize private property for public use — and designate former cluster sites belonging to landlord Barry Hers as rent-stabilized, which he said would protect about 80 families from eviction.

"If we can use eminent domain to build things like Barclays Stadium and other stuff, we can use eminent domain to make sure people are protected and staying in their homes," said Williams.

"The administration has said that they would use eminent domain on other authorities to make these scatter site rent-regulated or other types of housing, they have to do that."

A spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office responded to Patch's request for statement with a pledge to provide financial assistance to the residents, but did not comment on William's call for the usage of eminent domain.

“Our mayor will not leave these families stranded," the spokeswoman wrote. "We will pay for lawyers to represent these families in housing court.

Legal Aid Society attorneys plan to return to court on Nov. 13 to file a stay on the evictions and appeal Acting Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Peter Sweeney's ruling that former cluster site residents are not tenants, even though they paid rent, and therefore not protected by tenant rights.

Hers has been trying to evict the residents he housed through a Department of Homeless Services cluster site program, which paid his nonprofit We Always Care about $2,700-per-month for every formerly homeless family placed in one of Hers' developments, since 2015, Legal Aid attorneys said.

The landlords' attorney, Nativ Winiarsky successfully argued that the cluster-site residents were not tenants, but licensees, and therefore unprotected, the New York Law Journal reported in October.

As the holidays approach, residents live in fear that a knock on the door will come and they'll be forced to pack up their belongings and move out of their homes.

That's why Sutherland is fighting the decision, even though her teenaged daughter is ashamed that her friends might find out about their situation.

"My daughter feels this is embarrassing ... she doesn't want people to know we used to be homeless," said Sutherland.

"But I told her I have to fight because if not, we'll be outside like we were before."

Photo by Kathleen Culliton