Concerns with new migrant housing program
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Some asylees who have moved out of the care of DocGo months ago are now are on their own with the help of the Migrant Relocation Assistance Program. NEWS10’s Reporter James De La Fuente speaking with a few migrant families, now in the state grant program known as MRAP. They tell NEWS10 the conditions are not good.
"Home problem. Three kids. Can you help me?" one resident asked.
With the help of Maria Pacheco, Founder of Allies for Justice, Schenectady County, migrants who in the last few months rented their first U.S. apartments were able to communicate their concerns.
On the top floor of the multi-unit Albany building with no screens on any windows, lived a mother of three. "She is quite content and happy to be in a place where she has more room to be with her family of five and then at the hotel, she was very uncomfortable sleeping in one room with five people,” translated Maria Pacheco.
From the video above you can see large gaps at the base of the toilet. The resident says this leaks on every flush. Looking up from the first floor you can see the leak making its way down each floor.
During the walk through our crews ran into a second-floor tenant who showed us her problems. She had ceiling tiles caving in and a leak in her apartment, as well.
"They told her that two months ago when she first moved here and she saw all the problems in the apartment, she complained and she reported them and they told her that to wait two months and that, you know, they will help her. And there's been no help," translated Pacheco.
A man on the first floor says he needs to have the problems fixed soon, as he is expecting his wife and new baby to join him. Pacheco translated, "He's pleading for help because since he moved here almost a month ago, the conditions have been very deplorable. He has problems in the bathroom where there is a leak, and it hasn't been fixed. And his wife is having a baby and he's coming in two days, and he still has the very deplorable conditions in the bathroom. And he will like that to be fixed so that there will be no health problems with the baby."
Pacheco is working with other asylees living over on Trinity Place, where she says they are complaining about the unsafe environment for their children because of drug use and prostitution around their building.
Bishop Avery Comithier, Founder of Pastors on Patrol said, “That’s an observance of Pastors on Patrol. We acknowledge it, and we try to address it as well as we can because we want the community safe. Things have been changing. This area was really bad, but it's starting to turn around. I think when people see presence more that's when they acknowledge we better straighten up.”
Inside the Trinity Place apartments, our crews also saw exposed wires and loose tiles. Rick LaJoy, Albany’s director of buildings and regulatory compliance says the owners will be cited. He says they have 35 days to come into compliance or, they will be taken to court.
Comithier said, "The main thing is to get with the landlords to make sure that they're doing on their side. you know, what’s clean, what is livable."
The problems aren’t just inside the building they are also outside. In the video above is shows the front entrance, the stairs are falling apart and littered with debris. NEWS10 reporter James De la Fuente tripped on the stairwell as we were leaving and almost fell.