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Gabrielle Wagner, 91, moved into the Riverview Senior Independent Living
facility last April after her identical twin, whom she had lived with,
died in 2018. She had been lonely and the modern apartment tower in
Hell’s Kitchen felt less like assisted living and more like a
comfortable community for active seniors where she could live out her
days.
“I thought I’d go out feet
first,” she said just before Christmas. “I thought I’d finally found a
place I can stay in until I die.”
Muriel
Fisher, 86, left her $811-a-month, rent-controlled, two-bedroom
apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens, to move in to a studio at the
Riverview in 2018. Her grandson, who lives on the same Manhattan block
as the center, insisted it was no longer safe for her to be alone.
Milton
Gluck, also 86, moved in three months ago to be closer to his son,
after his partner of 30 years entered a nursing home. He hasn’t yet
fully unpacked.
Then, on Dec. 3, the building’s
management distributed a surprise letter to all the residents. Riverview
was being sold, it said, “sometime in the first few months of 2020.”
Everyone would have to leave.
The
nonprofit that owns the building said the center, which opened less than
two years ago, had been losing money and it could no longer afford to
run it. The group was seeking a market-rate buyer.
The
news sent the 31 residents of Riverview — who are nearly all in their
70s, 80s and 90s — into a panic, unsure of where they would go.
New
York City is in the grips of an affordable housing crunch for seniors —
the latest data shows an estimated 200,000 low-income seniors were on
waiting lists for federally subsidized housing in 2016 citywide — and
middle-income seniors are also struggling to find homes that fit their
needs.
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For older New
Yorkers in the middle — even those who can afford Riverview’s rates of
about $4,000 a month for a small apartment, three meals a day,
housekeeping and some social events — the options are limited. And when
you’re a nonagenarian looking for what may be your last home, it’s not
just about finding an open spot.
The EastView,
a new independent living facility that the Salvation Army just opened
in Harlem, has space, but many residents felt it was too far from their
families. The West 74th Street Residence, which has interviewed several Riverview residents, was less expensive, but had less charm, some said.
Nothing
felt like the Riverview, a 14-story building at 49th Street and 10th
Avenue in the heart of Midtown. Several residents described falling in
love with its hotel-like hallways, modern finishes and Hudson River
views. So its residents, many using pensions from careers as educators,
engineers or public servants, sold homes, left friends and moved in.
For Stuart Dunn,
90, it was the second time that his senior living landlord was asking
him to move in order to sell the property. Until 2018, he lived in the
Williams on the Upper West Side, a Salvation Army-owned independent
living residence that was closed to make way for luxury housing.
“It
is a societal issue that we really are at the cutting edge of,” he
said, of the difficulty of finding a quality place to live with other
independent seniors. “What is society going to do about the elderly?”
He said he most feared losing contact with his fellow residents, particularly Ms. Fisher, with whom he had become very close.
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Some residents are meeting with lawyers to see what else can be done. About five have already moved out.
One
has died, and another, who has been in the hospital, has not been able
to deal with the news completely. “They are fearful of what is going to
happen, and overwhelmed,” Joel Riff, 68, who is among the younger
residents. “The mood is pretty depressed.”
They
were particularly surprised, they said, because Riverview is owned by a
nonprofit corporation that largely operates homeless shelters, Homes for the Homeless.
After losing its city contract to run the building as a family homeless
shelter in 2015, the organization decided to renovate and reopen the
facility as an independent living building in early 2018, said Ralph da Costa Nunez, the chief executive officer of Homes for the Homeless.
The
organization had succeeded with a similar conversion in Staten Island,
and thought it could do the same in Manhattan. But Riverview never
filled more than 35 or so of its 82 apartments, he said.
The
residents felt that Riverview had not adequately marketed itself. Some
said that they knew seniors who had reached out to explore moving in,
but that the management had not followed up with them. Mr. da Costa
Nunez disputed that account. He said there were likely not enough
interested residents because Riverview did not offer assisted living
services, and some families wanted the option of more comprehensive care
as their family members aged.
Assisted living
centers are regulated by the New York Department of Health, which
provides additional protections to residents. But the Riverview, though
it marketed itself as a place where seniors could bring private aides,
had no such designation. As a result, the seniors, who had only
month-to-month contracts, were vulnerable to eviction.
Mr.
da Costa Nunez said that his organization could no longer afford to run
the facility at a loss. “We are getting killed” with the costs of food,
staffing and utilities, he said, adding that part of the issue was that
the seniors were keeping the heat too high.
The
losses, which he said amounted to “several million dollars already,”
had started to threaten the operation of the senior facility in Staten
Island, he said.
“No one wants to shut
this down,” he said, “but Economics 101 is Economics 101.” He added
that the closure “won’t happen before April for sure,” though the
management had not stated the same in writing to the residents.
As the losses spiraled, residents said, the nonprofit
repeatedly reassured its tenants not to worry and kept signing new
contracts. Among the most fragile residents are a 99-year-old Holocaust
survivor, who has no family and is looked after by an organization, Selfhelp Community Services, and Mildred Burt, 95, who arrived in March at the urging of a niece.
Ms.
Burt had come from a public-housing project where she had lived for 60
years. Her niece, Pat Jackson, said: “Where does that leave me? With an
aunt who is 95 years old who is basically homeless, and not much time to
look. This is just heartless.”
Determined
to fight back, the seniors formed a committee and contacted their
elected officials. Five local elected officials signed a joint letter to
Mr. da Costa Nunez demanding more time and support to the displaced
seniors.
“They
are slipping through the regulatory framework,” said State Senator Brad
Hoylman, who represents the area, vowing to look into the matter
further. “That seems to be duplicitous.”
Mr.
Nunez himself earned over $620,000 in 2018 as the director of Homes for
the Homeless and its nonprofit affiliates, according to tax documents.
At a heated meeting with elected officials on Dec. 19, he claimed to be
surprised by the angry reaction to the closure and “questioned why
these seniors can’t fend for themselves,” Mr. Hoylman recalled.
As the issue gained
attention, Riverview sent residents a follow-up letter on Dec. 20,
saying that the building would “likely” not be sold until April.
“No one is being thrown out,” the letter said.
“We
are going to run the place until we can transition every person out of
there appropriately,” Mr. Nunez said in the interview.
Amid
the uncertainty, the seniors have begun to plan their next steps. Both
Mr. Dunn and Ms. Fisher have put deposits down at the Carnegie East
House on East 96th Street, where assisted-living studios with meals
start at $6,400 a month, a stretch for them. Ms. Wagner is moving March 1
to the EastView in Harlem, selling some of her furniture to do so.
“Luckily for me, I was a Navy wife, so I know what moving is all about,” she said. “Not that I am looking forward to it.”
Full Article & Source:
She’s 91 and Is Being Kicked Out of Her Apartment
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