Twist in Eviction Fight: Charity as Landlord

[babylonsister]

Twist in Eviction Fight: Charity as Landlord
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

At the Parkside, in Manhattan, many rooms are now empty, their doors marked with an X. The 17-story building was once home to hundreds of women.


By MANNY FERNANDEZ and KATE HAMMER
Published: September 16, 2007

For months, Princess Usanga, a sales assistant at a television station, has been embroiled in a particularly heated dispute with her landlord. She and other tenants took the owner of the Manhattan building where they live to State Supreme Court, hoping to block their eviction while the building is put up for sale.

In a city where landlord-tenant battles are all too common, this dispute is one of a kind, not so much because of the nature of the complaints but because of the identity of the owner: the Salvation Army.

The case has pitted a group of tenants from two of the few remaining women-only, single-room-occupancy buildings in Manhattan against one of the largest religious and charitable organizations in the world.

It has turned into an unusually public and messy battle for the Salvation Army, which has long operated the buildings, the Parkside Evangeline Residence for Young Women at 18 Gramercy Park South and the Ten Eyck-Troughton Residence at 145 East 39th Street, as safe and inexpensive havens for women.

The tenants of the two buildings, who have support from housing advocates and some city officials, started a blog at salvationfromarmy.blogspot.com and even picketed outside the Salvation Army’s Spring Gala at the New York Hilton.

“The Salvation Army feels that they’re untouchable because of their reputation and their name,” said Ms. Usanga, 23, the president of the tenants’ association at the Parkside. “It just really upsets me. I expected more from them, and I can never look at them the same.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/nyregion/16salvation.html?ex=1347595200&en=aa09544d482a33bc&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss