This opinion piece was written by K Webster, a member of Community Board 3 and a leader of the Sara D. Roosevelt Park Coalition. She has been speaking out about the Rivington House mess for the past year-and-a-half. A version of this article was sent to the mayor’s community affairs office. This article reflects only her own opinions, not necessarily those of any organizations with which she is affiliated.
We are reading a great deal about Rivington House in the news. We are reading how “disappointed” the administration is about what happened.
And how angry the mayor himself is about this redistribution and privatization of public resources. And that he feels “lied to,” “tricked” and “unhappy.” We hear about the possibility of ‘penalizing’ the Allure Group. We hear about returning campaign contributions from some of the parties who are apparently involved (though not all parties).
Of course, none of this does anything to rectify what was, at best, an egregious act of incompetence that could cost this community’s most vulnerable citizens dearly.
In the early 80s, our neighborhood provided sanctuary to Rivington House at a time when few neighborhoods were welcoming the victims of the AIDS epidemic. The co-op building adjacent to Rivington House gave up a side lot (their garden) to Rivington House as an offering in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Our community volunteered there. Our students from local high schools performed for the residents. They had a plot in the M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden where many an afternoon was spent peacefully gazing at the turtle pond. The residents and staff were our neighbors, colleagues and friends. We were deeply entwined.
The news last year that VillageCare had emptied the building of residents without our knowledge was frustrating and infuriating. In light of the current desperate need for housing for HIV/AIDs patients (acknowledged by both de Blasio and Cuomo), it was premature to think the need for housing those afflicted by this scourge had ended. The medical crisis may have been countered, but for those who had been targeted by the destructive forces of racism and poverty the AIDs/HIV crisis had created damage that was only beginning to show.
The fight to save this facility for a low-income nursing home was no compensation for the loss to the former tenants.
But we fought for it. The neighborhood gave up nights to go to community board meetings, spent time we don’t have to organize, send petitions and write articles to save it. And we won. For a minute.
We then learned that it was taken from the community behind our backs. Sold first to the Allure Group with the commitment (we heard) to keep it a low-income nursing home with 200 beds. And at that time the deed restrictions were removed – apparently with no written guarantees. We now understand that the Allure Group’s Joel Landau made written promises to maintain the building as a nursing home. Are those written promises legally binding? It has turned out that the Allure Group had flipped a nursing home in Bed Sty. And we are hearing rumblings about their Harlem facility. Is anyone looking into that?
We do know that this was not done “in the best interests of the City,” as the public notice in the City Record asserted.
We were astonished to read of the secrecy surrounding crucial transactions involving this institution’s future (notices in obscure insider newsletters don’t count as transparent government). We were left unprotected; our interests unrepresented – despite this neighborhood’s overt, public, historic and deep commitment to this facility.
Now as we read further disclosures, we are deeply disturbed by the many parties involved in a transaction that saw the City of New York, in our opinion, essentially sell out low-income, disabled elders and the public.
Apparently the prominent Capalino lobbying firm played a role in 2013 and 2014, asking the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to remove the protective deed restriction, in order to release the property for unencumbered sale. While initially unsuccessful, it set the stage for the Allure Group to profit handsomely at the taxpayers’ expense. Intentional or not, the initial attempts precipitated the summary eviction of over 115 men, most of them African Heritage men, with HIV/AIDS, who had called this their home for decades.
The Capalino firm’s close personal and political connections to the mayor, the circumstances and timing of meetings that occurred with key players in this debacle and its association with Slate Property Group, which now co-owns the building, have all raised concerns and at least the appearance of possible impropriety. We hope that this firm takes steps to clear its name by opening itself to full scrutiny. Investigators will have to insist for everyone’s sake.
(Editor’s note: See Capalino’s defense here.)
Now many forces have finally succeeded in helping to remove the obstacle of a deed clearly intended to legally protect low-income people in our community. This public asset was sold to a wealthy foreign national corporation (China Vanke) for their enormous profit.
All so that rich people could get even richer.
Meanwhile, the taxpayer dollars (a $70 million NY State bond) that went for improvements to make this facility code-compliant are lying in ruin. Have the loans been repaid?
We’d like to hear from (labor union) 1199. There were once about 300 jobs in Rivington House — lost or downgraded or hours cut. Which doesn’t begin to speak of the grief of having your life’s work and the people you cared for treated as expendable.
We remain confident that the mayor and all our elected officials will exert their influence with the parties involved to return this public property to the public who built it, fought for it, maintained it and have desperate need of it.
Given the mayor’s oft-stated agenda to create affordable housing and the crushing loss of nursing homes in this neighborhood, it would be the only right course of action.
The community is not interested in politics or retribution or endless blame. These do nothing for actual people. We just want our building returned.
There is always something that can be done. To those of you who intended to profit unfairly off of the backs of our most vulnerable: You can give it back. I doubt any of you who made money here have real need of it.
NYC has moved entire parks used by poor people in the Bronx to make way for a new and unnecessary luxury Yankee Stadium. NYC moved homes and small businesses to make way for a high-end developer and sports team to build Barclay Center. We are sure this city can find a way if it chooses to do so.
Someone might want to apologize at some point for this mess. And not an employee.
And not with excuses. Just a straight up: “It happened on my watch so this is mine to fix. I am deeply sorry and I will do whatever it takes to return Rivington House to people who need it most.”
We will not let this go unchallenged. The people who were hurt, who will be hurt by this apparently have no voice that was deemed worth listening to. So ours will just have to get louder. We won’t go away because promises are made to do better in the future.
Please, we beg all the parties involved, find a way.
