The New York Times-20080127-For a Housing Group- A Familiar Client
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For a Housing Group, A Familiar Client
Full Text (449 words)LAST May, after visiting a friend in the hospital, Edgardo Alfaro returned to learn that his fourth-floor studio apartment on Lexington Avenue near 63rd Street had caught fire. Mr. Alfaro, a 69-year-old Peruvian immigrant, lost everything in the blaze.
Exactly what caused the fire, and who was to blame, were in dispute, but in any event Mr. Alfaro was soon homeless. Desperate, he walked a block south to Eviction Intervention Services, a housing advocacy agency located in Lexington United Methodist Church. Six months later, he moved back into a rent-controlled studio apartment in his old building.
If I didn't go to court with them, a grateful Mr. Alfaro said recently, I would still be homeless.
Now, however, Eviction Intervention Services finds itself in the same predicament as Mr. Alfaro was. Since 1984, the group has rented a large room in the church, on East 62nd Street. But according to the Rev. Elizabeth Perry, the pastor, the building will be demolished this spring and replaced by a new one containing apartments producing revenue that will help pay for improved worship space.
As a result, the group must leave by March 1. The agency's 16 employees, who include four lawyers, are experiencing what Audrey Tannen, the executive director, called the real terror, the problem of not being able to hold onto what you have already.
The agency's impending eviction was reported in Our Town East Side, a weekly newspaper.
Ms. Tannen spent a recent Tuesday morning scouting potential new homes for the group. But she returned to the agency's cluttered office, in which the supplies are stored on top of a church piano and an unused lectern stands in front of the room, with no promising leads. She had little hope of matching the group's current $3,500 monthly rent, but she hopes the group can remain on the Upper East Side.
Her group has roots in the neighborhood, she said, serving many clients who are elderly and do not use public transportation. Moreover, the neighborhood has what she termed a silent need.
The group's workers said they had long known of the church's approaching demolition, but only in December was Ms. Perry able to give them an eviction date.
Ellen FitzGerald, president of the agency's board of directors, said that people are often surprised when she tells them that some Upper East Siders need housing help. Such ignorance, she added, only contributes to the group's frustration.
Sometimes, she said, it's almost impossible to do the good work you want to do in this city.
[Illustration]PHOTO: An agency that helps those being evicted is itself losing its home in an East Side church. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIAN HANSEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)