A Brooklyn yeshiva is under fire for planning to boot two dozen families - including many elderly and disabled Russian immigrants - from a rent-subsidized apartment building in Brighton Beach.
"I'm very old, very sick. How am I going to find another apartment?" said Batskina Vjenia, 89, a disabled tenant who relies on a paid caretaker.
Like fellow residents at 35-45 West End Ave., Vjenia is at the mercy of the Mesivta and Yeshiva Gedolah of Manhattan Beach, which operates a high school and dormitory for 40 Orthodox Jewish boys out of the apartment building next door.
The school, at 59 West End Ave., purchased the adjacent site for $4 million in January, inheriting tenants who pay fixed rents ranging between $700 and $1,000 a month.
Eight of the residents, including Vjenia, pay far less out of pocket - about $100 - because they are poor and get reimbursed by the Section 8 program.
The school is relying on a loophole in state housing laws that allows nonprofit groups to kick out tenants in rent-stabilized apartments if it's being done for charitable or educational purposes.
The yeshiva wants the building for additional classroom space and a study hall, according to eviction notices it has started serving some tenants with.
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos.
--
Posted By Chaptzem to Chaptzem Blog! at 4/23/2007 11:36:00 AM
"We're not doing anything illegal. We need space, and we're trying to do this nice so no one is on the street," said the yeshiva's dean, Rabbi Joshua Zelikovitz.
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos.
--
Posted By Chaptzem to Chaptzem Blog! at 4/23/2007 11:36:00 AM