REWRITING
MY POST PERSONAL LIFE... EDITING MY LATEST BOOK
“I
RAN OUT OF PAPER, INK AND PEACE OF MIND”
I've rewritten my post-personal life, this is a miserable chapter of my latest book I RAN OUT OF PAPER, INK, AND PEACE OF MIND. On one page I summarize the 18 homes I have had since I started a housing crisis that left me homeless.
My posts on my website were used against me to resolve a long-standing legal issue that I have been fighting in a New Jersey Court. I was forced to stop writing my miseries so that my ex-husband would not use them to defame me in Court and get rid of his alimony obligation. He made false statements based on the information I provided on my blogs to create a negative image of me and the Court would rule in his favor.
The three most impactful homes have been: Home # 2 This experience left me with a confusing picture about the morality of some people who enforce laws. Many times, I felt more insecurity at home than on the street. I couldn't believe that the police officers with whom I shared the same roof had no dignity, no respect for themselves, for others, and for the institution they represented. Home # 12 This is the most evil and corrupt landlady I have ever met. The protagonists of this macabre story are introduced with names to identify their misdeeds. (2 pages). Home #18 is the most traumatic and overwhelming experience I've ever had in my housing crisis. It was marked by the corruption of the people in the building where I tried to rent an apartment. All my efforts ended up in a New York City Courthouse. My room was a steppingstone that threw me into a deep hole to live more misery as a homeless person. (3 pages).
SUMMARY HOME # 1
September 04, 2012, I found in a newspaper a room for rent. The landlady accepted me with my old poodle dog. The rent was $550 00 per month plus $25.00 Internet services. I wasn't allowed to use the kitchen, and this forced me to eat canned food. The landlady was a Hispanic woman with two daughters (3, 10 years) and her fiancé father of the younger girl. Every space in the house was rented to men. The landlady lived off public assistance and the City paid $ 1,000.00 for her rent. She received rent payments from tenants over $3,000.00 per month. At the same time, she had a cleaning business under her sister’s name who owned a restaurant. The living room was divided into two parts, one for her, the fiancé and the youngest daughter. The other side was separated by a low wall and was part of the kitchen where the eldest daughter and her grandmother slept.
My room was located on the second floor next to two bedrooms and behind the bathroom. One room was rented to three alcoholic men; they drank every night making noises while playing loud music. The bathroom most of the time was disgusting, the drunk men fell asleep there. The other room was rented to a married man who used to sleep with his lovers. The basement was rented to two men. One of them was an alcoholic who was harassing the 10-year-old girl, I heard rumors that he was the landlady’s lover. He paid rent with food stamps. The landlady was obsessed with Jennifer Lopez and wanted to have her body; she paid $10,000.00 for a plastic surgery. She removed the fat from shoulders and back to increase her butt. After the surgery she stayed at home showing everyone how her new butt looked. There was no peace in the house, the loud fights between the landlord, fiancé, grandmother, tenants and their daughters were frequent. My dog’s health deteriorated quickly, and I had to put him to sleep. I became homeless. My ex-husband reported me as a missing/dead person and terminated my alimony. I rented 5x5 storage to keep my books and spend the night there. This place was as cold as the street; the humidity was high and the paint on the ceiling fell on me with dust that I could barely breathe.
The situation worsened when the English-speaking police officer decided to live with one of his mistresses in the house. This woman was an arrogant person who didn't greet anyone. She left her underwear on the bathroom floor. Their room was right across from the kitchen. One day I was shocked to see the police officer and his lover sleeping naked with the room’s door opened. The chef told me that one day at noon he went to the kitchen and heard their screams and moans from the sexual act. They were always drunk. The owner was informed that a woman who was not a tenant lived in the house and came to investigate it. When he asked this officer if the woman was his friend, he had the audacity to say that the woman was the chef's girlfriend.
I went back to Craigslist to find another place to live. I found a lady who said she lived with her 12-year-old son and ex-fiancé. She was renting a room for $400.00 and asked for a month's deposit. The day of my move was very complicated; it was hard for me to get into the apartment with my book boxes. The hallway was filled with many things, a large rack to dry clothes, a table with a printer, books, paper, electrical cables on the floor, etc. The living room was divided into two rooms and one of them was the one for rent. It had a double bed that was nearly the size of the room, the space for my clothes and boxes was reduced. It had a walking distance of 2 feet by 5. The other room was like a closet and only had a bunk bed for children where the landlady and her son slept. The main room was occupied by a man who was the landlady's ex-fiancé. At night, people would sit on the steps of the building to drink, fight, smoke, shout, and play loud music. Even though my room was on the second floor, I could hear the noises.
The landlady had decided to go to college in the morning and have a part-time job in the afternoon. Her son was injured in a public-school during play time and she had filed a lawsuit. She told me he was attending a Catholic school because she didn't like her son meeting with Hispanic or black kids. The boy's father lived in her country and was the mother's brother-in-law. He was a white man, and his son inherited the color of the father with the complexion of the mother who had dark skin. One day when I got home the apartment was dark. Suddenly I found the landlady sitting at the kitchen table with a lighted candle and crying. She told me she had money issues, and she might lose the apartment for not paying the rent. She had to choose between paying rent or overdue electrical services nearly $760.00. Since May 2014, the ex-fiancé had not helped her enough because he had four underage children from other relationships. That night I couldn't recharge my computer or my phone. The next day I felt sick and had to go to the hospital, when I returned to the apartment, it still had no electricity. I had to live the month of the deposit and during this time the landlady did not speak to me and maintained a hostile attitude.
The landlady had split a bunk bed in which I had one bed and her son the other. She slept in the master room. The living room was separated by a wall making it two rooms. In one room the son slept and in the other one 2 of his friends. One of them was a 21-year-old man who had been expelled from his house. The other man was 19 years old. A few days after I rented the room, he was taken back to jail for breaking into a house in Brooklyn. His roommate, 21 years old, was lucky he could run away. The landlady was an irritable, resentful, arrogant and selfish woman. The relationship with her son was marked by domestic violence, constant shouting and cursing. Their lack of respect and loud fights always left me nervously broken down. This mother was creating a monster in her son who fed his desire to become a New York police officer. Every day I heard the e blows against the door as also objects that they threw to the wall or floor to destroy them. TVs, cell phones, chairs and even a laptop were destroyed by the landlord in a fight with her son. He did not have television or entertainment because all were broken by his mother.
Two weeks later, the landlady told me that her husband, from whom she was separated, would come to the apartment. This man had no voice or command in the house; their son told me that his father was like a zero to the left for his mother. His grandmother felt afraid to talk with the daughter. The fights increased after the husband stayed in the apartment. The landlady complained that he was an old man 20 years older than her and suffered from body aches to help with household chores. Finally, she asked him to return to his country.
I met a woman on the street and asked her about a room to rent. The building had no elevator, and the apartment was located on the 4th floor. I needed to leave the lousy place where I was living and accepted to take the room despite my medical condition. The landlady told me she was renting her son's room because he was in jail. He couldn't return home after being released because he had drug problems. The room was part of the living room and could not be locked because it had emergency windows. The landlady asked me for $800.00 for a month's rent plus the deposit. She lived with a 17-year-old daughter and a troubled tenant who has been with her for 3 years.
After I moved in, the landlady warned me that on the 5th floor above my room was living a mentally troubled boy who walks making noises. She asked me not to complain. I noticed that the apartment didn’t have showers. The people of the house collected water into a bucket and with a bowl they took their bath. This was to avoid the landlady’s daughter taking long baths and listening to music. The toilet paper could not be thrown into the toilet, it had to be left in an open container, and it was disgusting. Two weeks later I was in shock. The landlady introduced me to her son who had just been released from prison. He had an intimidating attitude toward me and asked me to leave his room where he had his stuff. Since I had paid the month's rent I stayed in the room until the expiration. The man slept on a sofa in the living room.
One night I was alone with the other tenant, and she talked about the landlady’s problems. Her son was trafficking illegal drugs in his room. One day he sold heroin to two undercover policemen. Later, they arrived at the apartment and went to his room in search of drugs. The landlady, daughter and son were handcuffed. The mother tried to resist the arrest and fell to the floor, hurting herself. She used this incident to file a lawsuit against the police. The next day they were released, but the son stayed imprisoned. As the landlady was taking public assistance, she was not permitted to live with her son, but she did it. He was heroin -addicted and using the bathroom became almost impossible. He spent long hours sitting on the toilet until he fell asleep. He would leave the syringes in the bathroom, walk naked in the living room and at night he would scream, sing in vulgar language, going in and out of the apartment. I found the syringes inside the toilet. One morning I found him naked in the living room. At night he shouted and sang in vulgar language. As we sleep very close to each other I have no peace of mind to sleep. He was in and out of the apartment the entire night.
SUMMARY HOME# 8
It was so hard for me to find a place to live that I had to go to a rental room agency. This business was really a travel agency; there was a woman at a desk by the entrance to the office with a list of rooms for rent. The charge to find the room was a week's rent and had to be paid in cash. I was sent to different places, most of the rooms were disappointing and without privacy. One of them was in a hallway with curtains hanging from the wall. I didn't have many options, but I decided to rent the least bad one. The room was the living room of a one-bedroom apartment. The landlady lived with her husband, a 12-year-old daughter, a 17-month-old baby and a small dog that was mostly of the time inside a closet. The rent was $500.00.
As always, after moving into a room I discovered how the people in the house really lived. The master bedroom was rented to a couple, and the family slept on a full-size futon located in a small hallway from the entrance to the apartment. It measured 8 feet wide by 16 feet long. There was a flat TV against the wall in the living room and a small crib in front of the kitchen entrance. When the family was sleeping, it was difficult to get out the kitchen door. The wife slept with her head next to her husband's feet and the daughter with her legs over the mother's body. Most of the time I found the girl with her head hanging from the futon.
I didn’t have enough time to sleep because of the family noises. The husband worked two jobs and came home around midnight. At that time the wife would start cooking and the whole family would be awake until dawn the next day. The baby was not allowed to sleep at night because the wife slept during the day, both needed to sleep at the same time. The younger girl used to scream loudly when she wanted something. Many times, she hit my door with the bottle waking me up. The bathroom was stinky, the dog poo-poo inside and diapers were all over the floor.
I met a lady from my home country at a Hispanic parade; her son was a politician seeking a position in the Bronx. She informed me of a tenant in her building who rented rooms. This was a lady from Haiti, and she rented me a room for $500.00. She asked me for a copy of my driver's license, but I hesitated to give it to her because she didn't want to tell me her real name. She also informed me that she would not sign me a receipt for rent payment. The room had no bed, there was a sofa bed, but the landlady told me it belonged to her daughter, and I couldn't use it. For two weeks I slept in a convertible armchair and this hurt my back, so I had to buy a bed. There were some religious items, frames, crosses, and a stand to pray. I asked the landlady to take her stuff out of my room, I needed space for my belongings, but she moved out a few things. The apartment looked like a cemetery full of crosses, some large others small. On weekends the landlady takes care of her grandson. The baby's chair had a cross and a Bible.
I soon realized that something was wrong with this woman, she repeated several times facts that had already been told to me. The first night I was scared when I went to the bathroom, it was dark and I heard someone snoring in the living room, but I couldn't see anyone. On the third day, I saw the feet of a man coming out from a sofa. Later, I learned that this person was her husband. The landlady walked around the house in her underwear, looked like a big baby with a wet diaper, and showed the shape of her private parts. She would open my room to go through my belongings. One day I left a container in the bathroom, and she put it in her room. When I paid the second month's rent, she asked me for extra money to pay for the overdue utilities which were almost $700.00. I refused to give her extra money and in retaliation she limited the use of electricity. The light from the hallway was removed and I had to use a flashlight to walk among the darkness. The kitchen and the bathroom had a dim light. She started a chasing attitude towards me; she locked the door to force me to ring the bell. Every day the persecution of the landlady became more intense, she stood by my room door to listen to my telephone conversations.
She turned off the cold water and I often burned my body when showering, she also removed the head’s shower and she left inside the bathtub containers full of clothes. She would open the bathroom door when I was using it. One day her husband told me about the difficulties of living with his wife. I visited the lady who introduced me to the landlady I was dealing with, to tell her about the horrible situation I was experiencing. She offered to rent part of her living room for $500.00. It was an open space near the windows and heaters; I needed to divide it with a wall and leave a space for her to have part of her living room.
SUMMARY HOME #10
On October 12, I bought four folding doors of plastics and materials to make a wall in my new landlady living room. The super of the building charged me $ 250.00 for labor. This small space cost me $642. 21 and it was the only way I could have a room. The landlady had the master bedroom; her mess was impressive. most of her stuff was on the floor all over the room, it seemed like a pig house, dirty and there was no space to walk through. She had 2 rooms rented, one by his niece and the other by a lesbian. The niece controlled the apartment, had an intimidating attitude and made her aunt's life hell; There was no respect between them.
Neither the landlady nor the niece cooked. Many times, I heard the landlady ask about the food she had kept in the fridge and the niece denied that she had eaten it. The lesbian and I couldn't have anything in the fridge because they ate it. We hid some groceries in the room, since I didn't have a lock, I used a trunk with a key. One day I was sick and made soup, I left it on top of the stove while cooling. The shameless family ate it up without my permission. Sleeping in the living room near the kitchen was very unpleasant, there were a lot of mice running from the kitchen to my room. The superintendent charged me $6.00 to put a lamina under each of the two radiators of the living room where the mice were hiding. The landlord warned me that if I pay for the radiators that are in my room, I will have to pay for the 10 radiators that are in the apartment. The lesbian tenant moved out of the apartment, and I was sad, she was the only honest and respectful person with whom I shared the apartment. She suggested that I ask for her room, although it was very small, it had a door and walls.
The super wanted to remove the division he installed in the living room; he did not want to have problems with the owner of the building; the division was illegal. The landlady frequently called NY City to complain about the problems of the building. The rent of the new room was $ 600.00, and I took it. Then she wanted to keep the division to find someone and rent the space. I had paid for this, so I agreed with the Super to remove it, this angered the landlady. My life in this house became more and more impossible every day, especially with the niece's unpleasant attitude. One day she yelled at me and tried to touch my face with her middle finger while cursing. She was hysterical and asked me to move out of the apartment.
SUMMARY HOME # 11
SUMMARY HOME #12
On October 10, 2016, I went to a Mexican grocery store and saw a piece of paper with a phone number that said about a room for rent. I met Lucy, 57, and Mario, her young husband. They had rented the first floor of a house. Lucy asked me for $1,000.00 to move into a room, this included one month's rent and deposit. The room had no bed, and the door was made of transparent plastic with a curtain. Next door was another room rented to a 25-year-old Korean student. The first day Lucy showed me the room for rent, she opened the Korean student's door for me to see how messy it was. He paid $600.00 rent including $100.00 for cleaning. Lucy and Mario married in 2015 as soon as they discovered cancer in Mario. This man through public assistance for the treatment of cancer began a process to legalize his immigration status in the United States. Lucy expected to obtain her residence through him. The Chemotherapy ruined Mario’s intimate functions and they lived in separate rooms. The homeowner was a blind man who lived in the basement, he was married but his wife had a traveling job and came home twice a month. His sister was taking care of the house and managed the rented rooms on the second floor.
One day I met Lucy, and another second-floor tenant named Alexa. I was shocked when Lucy proudly told us what she had done with a previous tenant. This was a single woman with a young kid, Lucy didn’t get along with her and asked to vacate the room. The tenant had difficulties finding another place to live. Lucy had gone to a doctor to remove 2 moles (skin growth) located on each side of the neck. She took advantage of this medical procedure to scratch the scar until bleeding, then called the police saying that the tenant had beaten her up. She made a false report so the tenant could not enter the apartment. At night when the tenant came home the police arrested her. Lucy enjoyed seeing the tenant lying on the ground, handcuffed and her son crying. The police escorted the tenant to pick her stuff up. This evil action was left unpunished.
Lucy was taking care of a boy named
"Carlitos". She used the boy to extort a 27-year-old man for money. deceiving him with
false paternity and motherhood. This man met her when he was 17 years old
making pizza deliveries. Although the couple seemed like mother and son, they
had a clandestine romance over the years.
Lucy told Oscar that she was expecting a baby from him. Oscar believed it because he knew her husband couldn’t have any intimate relationship. Lucy told him that she was going to Mexico for the time of her pregnancy and will come back near the time the baby was born. Oscar believed this despicable action and gave Lucy all the money he had in his savings account to cover the baby’s expenses. The child's mother was unaware of what was happening with her son. She was a single mother with two girls and the boy's father didn't care about him because he was a married man. For periods of time due to Lucy's difficulties to share time with Oscar, she tells him that she had to send their son to Mexico and ask for Oscar money. Lucy promised Oscar that when her husband Mario died, she would take care of his illegal immigration status and would share the benefits she might have from her deceased husband.
The times I saw the boy sitting alone
in the kitchen broke my heart, he was always scared. The boy was forced to call
his fake parent’s mom and dad. The alleged father was proud to display photos
of his alleged son on Facebook. One night Lucy was taking a shower and minutes
later, when she went to her room, I heard a violent fight. Oscar was beating
Lucy while breaking her things. The next day, Alexa arrived at the apartment
and Lucy spoke to her. I was shocked when Alexa told me that Mario found Lucy cheating
on him. Oscar made a call, and Mario took the cell phone, they didn't have any
conversation, but Mario began to review all of Oscar's calls and text messages.
He found photos of the boy having fun with him and Lucy. Mario forbade Lucy
bringing the child into the house, but she did so in secret. The boy's mother
had financial trouble paying Lucy and decided not to bring him anymore.
Although Lucy reduced the amount of the payment, the mother did not accept it.
Lucy went out of her way to charge me an extra $100.00 for cleaning the house. She wanted the bathroom cleaned with pure Chlorine. I refused to use it because it causes me a terrible reaction and irritates my eyes. I offered her other chemical liquids mixed with chlorine that were not too strong, but she did not accept. Mario had a repulsive medical condition in his throat; he would accumulate a secretion and then throw it on the zinc. Many times, I felt nauseous when going to the bathroom.
The relationship between my landlords and the homeowner turned into fights. Mario tried to get a lot of money for the repairs he made to the house. The homeowners offered me a room on the second floor, and I accepted. Alexa advised me that Lucy wanted to hurt me and asked her to do it by throwing me down the stairs if I rented a room from the homeowner. Next day I went to a Civil Court to make a complaint about the threats from Lucy, but the court ruled my case without merit. Then, I went to a Criminal Court to set a precedent if something happened to me. The answer was the same that the police gave me, a crime is necessary to act. I only obtained a letter stating my visit to the Court.
The day of my moving to the second floor Lucy decided to bathe the apartment in pure Clorox and burned something stinky in the kitchen, the smoke was everywhere. I opened my room window, and she yelled at me asking to close it. When I finished moving, I went to New Jersey to spend the weekend.
SUMMARY HOME # 13
On Monday, March 13, 2017, when I arrived home, the police came looking for me. Lucy had called them saying that I had gone to her door cursing her, she accused me of stealing her keys and some knives from the kitchen. She asked the police to take me out of the house because she feared for her life. The homeowner came and talked to the police on my behalf. This time her evil trick didn't work out and her demand was unsuccessful. On the second floor the living room was divided into two rooms, in one of them lived Alexa with her mentally ill 35-year-old son. Next to this room was a large room with curtains hanging on the wall. This space was occupied by a woman and 2 daughters, one 12 years old and the other 4 years old. The homeowner was their mentor and included them in his taxes. He also helps them obtain refugee visas. On the other side of the house were two small rooms; one rented by a mailman for 5 years and the other mine, my rent was $500.00.
The mailman and I became friends to fight against the misdeeds of the tenant who lived with two daughters, she was his enemy. He told me that my room was unoccupied for a long time because the previous tenant died there. The homeowner's brother-in-law took the corpse of this man to the park and sat him on a bench. This way his death appeared to be caused by a heart attack while he was in the park and the house would not be investigated. When I heard this story, my skin became "goose bumps". The mailman was not happy living in the house, he felt that the owner took advantage of his situation, he paid $750.00 for the rent of the bed and the room. In addition, the homeowner rented him a phone for $25.00 a month and it was damaged. These phones were given free of charge to people with public assistance. The homeowner's sister lent him money at 40% interest, he had a debt of $3,000.00. I witnessed some transactions that the two of them recorded on paper
The tenant and her 2 daughters took the apartment as their property to make life miserable for the other tenants. I heard rumors that the homeowner was pretending to be a blind person. He would go to the girls' room and lie on the bed to watch TV with them. The mother went to the basement where he lived to massage his legs, several times he was caught without underwear. His wife was aware of this situation, but she did not care since he had given her the house. The 12-year-old has been raising her younger sister since she was 8 years old, beating her as punishment with everything she could get her hands on. The girls spent most of their time alone, behaved badly, were spoiled and disrespectful to everyone in the house. They listened to no one; the mother turned a deaf ear to any complaint about her daughters. She would leave food on the stove or in the oven for two or three days. Cockroaches piled up on the food and mice ate from it. The kitchen was a mess full of flies. On October 17, 2017, I received a call from the homeowner's sister informing me that when she went to collect the rent from the mailman, she found him dead. The room had a pestilent smell due to the rot of its body; the worms ran down the wall and came out under the door. She deduced that he was dead in his bed for at least two weeks, his face was skeleton. The girls' mother posted this unfortunate event on her Facebook.
SUMMARY HOME # 14
I walked around a church and found a man coming out to pray. He informed me of someone who rented a room. This was a one-bedroom apartment, and I rented a 6 x 8 foot space from a 15-foot living room for $500.00. The back wall had 2 large broken windows that on snowy days would enter the room. To open and close the windows, I had to crawl over the mattresses bouncing on the bed. Behind the headboard of the bed was a damaged heater the size of the bed. It was off due to excessive heat for such a tight space. Under this radiator the mice had their burrow, and it was difficult to catch them due to the lack of space to move things. The living room was divided by a thin wall that allowed me to hear everything from the landlady's side that was her entertainment place. She had a large TV on the wall connected to the music with speakers that when she used it the wall vibrated. At the exit of my room there was a glass display case with liquor bottles. There was a sofa, a tea table and a chair that I had to move back and forth to enter the room. Between the dividing wall and my bed was 2 feet. The trunk where I kept my things left me only 9 inches in walking distance. The apartment was completely crowded, even behind the exit door. Most of the time the landlady maintained a strange attitude towards me, she seemed annoyed by my presence, it was clear that she wanted total privacy, and I was in her way. When I went to the bathroom and she noticed from her room, she would aggressively slam the door at me without saying anything. In the morning, to avoid greeting me when I left the house, she wore headphones pretending she didn't hear me. She told me that her boyfriend sometimes sleeps at home, when I pass by the kitchen, and he was there she had a jealous attitude. She covered him with her body to avoid any greeting.
Most of the time the landlady had a strange attitude, she seemed upset by my presence in the apartment, it was clear that she wanted complete privacy, and I was on her way. When I went to the bathroom, and she saw me from her room she aggressively threw the door on my face without saying anything. In the morning, to avoid my greeting as I left the house, she would wear headphones pretending not to listen to me. She told me that her boyfriend sometimes sleeps at home, when I pass by the kitchen, and he is there, she has a very jealous attitude. She covered him with her body to avoid any greeting. I saw him very few times during the time I rented the room. He was a married taxi driver.
The landlady always locked the apartment with a chain at any time of the day or night, she told me that it was as a precaution, to avoid being surprised by her ex who let her live in the apartment. I had to call or text her to open the door for me. Sometimes she wouldn't hear the phone because of the music she was listening to, and I had to wait for a long time. On January 4, 2018, a snowstorm called "BOMB CYCLONE" for high winds and low temperatures, entered my room, throwing snow through a broken window. I couldn't have any protection and had to tear a jacket to pieces to cover the holes in the window. In addition to this miserable life, the man from the church who brought me to the apartment became my stalker. He searched for a sentimental relation which I was not interested in. Many times, I saw his car behind my car waiting for me to get out of the building. On weekends when I returned from New Jersey he asked where I was or where I parked because he couldn’t find my car around the building.
SUMMARY HOME # 15
One of my neighbors informed me that one of the tenants on the first floor was renting out her studio bedroom. The living room had a built-in kitchen, a dining table, two bicycles, a TV, and a refrigerator. On a sofa bed the landlady slept. She asked me for $6,00.00 for one month's rent plus the $600.00 deposit. I offered her $300.00 for the deposit and she accepted.
The bedroom had 2 beds, 4 bedside tables, and a dresser between the beds. I didn't ask why there was so much furniture inside the room, I assumed that when I moved in she was going to take it out. A day before my moving, the landlady asked me which bed I would choose to sleep in. I replied that any bed was the same for me, she immediately told me that she would sleep in the other bed. I was shocked when she told me that the room was for sharing. I did not accept the offer and asked her to take her things out of the room or return my money. My decision caused an argument between us, she claimed that by having the room only for me, I took ownership of the apartment. Since she didn't want to give me my money back, she had no choice but to leave me alone in the room. She left the furniture inside.
At night, when I was moving, the landlady complained because I had too many things. She walked into the room like crazy and said that the room was going to be very crowded. She warned me that the room must be very clean and organized. She didn't give me the key to the room and restricted the electricity by turning off the light, she would get angry if I stayed up late at night using a low voltage light bulb. The apartment was very dark, with no ventilation because the windows were blocked out. It was hard for me to cook even breakfast because she was on the couch supervising me.
By the end of the month, I was surprised by the landlady. She told me that one of her previous clients, a man she provided home care for, supported her financially. She was going to her country for one month and a half, this man had the apartment’s key and could come whenever he wanted to. Her strategy to get money for her vacation worked out for her. She knew through my previous landlady that I was an honest person that wouldn't steal her belongings.
SUMMARY HOME # 16
On July 06, 2019, I returned to the building at 2665 Grand Concourse Bronx, NY to meet the Super Francis. We had a meeting in the basement where he lived. After knowing my financial situation, he assured me that I qualified for a studio apartment, and he was also a friend of the owner and would use his influence to help me. He informed me that by mid-July 2019, two studios would be unoccupied, one on the third floor and the other on 8. He showed me the third floor; the tenant who lived there opened the door for us. The super called one of his friends who lived on the 7th floor who had a small room for rent. The landlady asked for $800.00 rent, but with the help of the super down to $600.00. The super asked me for a $150.00 commission, so we went to the bank to withdraw the money. Three days later he asked to lend him $100.00. This loan was never repaid, although I made attempts to collect it.
The room was technically a walk-in closet. The room had a sink and a toilet; I could not have a key because the landlady used the sink to brush her teeth. She gave me a small area in the fridge for my food. The kitchen was disgusting. The stove had pots on top that should be in the same position after cooking, no microwaves or any electrical appliances were allowed. There were 2 large rooms rented to two men, one of them named Samuel on the day of my move, told me this landlady is worse than the devil. By her lifestyle somehow, I agreed with him, but I believed the promises of the super that I would be there only for a few weeks. Indeed, this landlady was a demanding and harassing woman. His strange lifestyle was out of being a normal person. She wouldn't let lights on and lived in the dark. She didn't allow any windows to open, and the apartment smelled awful due to lack of ventilation. Her bedroom was the dining room and from her bed she observed who was in the kitchen and how long. My room was in front of her. I cooked rice and eggs in my bathroom.
Samuel constantly had strong disagreements with the landlady. He had threatened to report her to Social Services if she threw him out of the house. She received over $2,000.00 in rent living on public assistance. She only paid $553.51 in rent. The landlady said he was angry with her because she didn't marry him to obtain legal residency in the country. He brought women into the house and this bothered the landlady. I discovered by myself that Samuel was an abusive and disrespectful man. One day he kissed my shoulders as he came out of the kitchen, and I entered my room. Another day he pushed me against the wall to touch my chest. I reacted violently and walked away shouting at him and asking him for respect. The man who rented the other room was allied with the landlady and was an enemy of Samuel. I observed strange events by this man's door that distressed me. It seemed that they came from evil rituals. Every day different things appeared on the ground such as crosses, cards, bible, glasses, bottles, leaves, etc. The bathroom had no lock, only the door could be closed, it was next to this mysterious man's room.
SUMMARY HOME # 17
The superintendent of the building where I always wanted to rent an apartment recommended me to one of his friends who had a room to rent. I needed a place to live, and I accepted this apartment on a second floor and without an elevator. I had to climb 26 steps. As I entered the building, I noticed the strong smell of marijuana. The apartment was in front of the area where garbage and recyclables were stored, and many flies entered. The landlady rented me the master bedroom, and it was full of furniture and many things from her. The landlady and her 86-year-old mother slept in a small space that was the dining room. The living room was divided into two rooms, one of which was where the landlady's brother, 55 years old, slept, and the other part was the living room. Some days, a 72-year-old woman would help care for the mother and stay with the family. There was a camera in front of my room. The landlady asked for weekly payments of $150.00 and a deposit of $150.00. The night of my move was a nightmare.
I started moving at 6:30 pm. I offered the landlady's brother $50.00 to help me get my things into the room. He refused to help me and instead watched me from the living room as I was struggling with the move. It was hard for me to wait for the elevator on the seventh floor, get things down to the lobby, cross a busy street and then carry them up to the second floor in a heavy shopping cart. The pain in my legs was intense and intolerable. The landlady complained that it was late at night, and I should hurry. She told me that her mother went to bed early and she worked the next day. Her job was a lady-in-waiting for an elderly person, she started at 5:30 p.m. and returned at 8:00 a.m. the next day, 3 days a week. I made my last trips dragging my stuff because I could hardly walk. When I finished moving, the landlady warned me not to make noises because she didn't want complaints from the neighbors.
The next day at 5:30 am the noises from the recycling and trash collection woke me up. A lot of flies came into the room. The distrustful attitude of the landlady's brother stressed me out more and more every day. He would put marks on toilet paper and other personal items to see if I used them. He hid behind my back to see if I used the things in the house. He would sit in a strategic area waiting until I came out of the bathroom. My arrival at the building was annoying: I had to walk among the people who sat at the entrance to smoke marijuana, listen to music and talk loudly.
SUMMARY HOME 18
This housing experience is the last and worst as a tenant of a room. I lived in a chain of corruption made by the people surrounding me.
Luis's harassment continued. He took showers with the door open; my room was between the bathroom and his room. When I opened my door, he was naked in front of it half-naked. He walked with a small towel covering his genitals and sometimes it was about to fall. He waited for the moment when I was alone in the kitchen washing the dishes to come up to me and pushed me towards the sink. His shorts were almost in the middle of his buttocks, and it was obvious that he was not wearing underpants.
On August 24, 2020, Ms. Tascano had intentions to hurt me physically. She brought a sofa to block the exit to the apartment and the kitchen, leaving less than a foot to pass. I had to walk in the dark, suddenly I tripped over the couch breaking a glass jug with water and hurt my knee. I didn't go to the hospital because of Covid-19 precautions and had to tolerate the pain without medication. The family used the smoke detector alarm to harass me, they burned food to set off the smoke alarm. The noise, the smoke, walking in the dark, and knowing that there was no way to escape terrified me. The fire escape was blocked with a wall and the door with a key.
Ms. Tascano often set off the
fire alarm by burning food to harass me. I had to run out of my room in the
darkness and smoke and as soon as she saw me, she would start screaming: We
are burning! We are burning! Triggering the smoke alarm became a habit.
I reported the situation to the NY Fire department. They
removed the wall and the door that Ms. Tascano made to separate the living room
from the hallway. The coexistence became worse, we had police visits. The
cousins moved out without me noticing. The Super removed the lock on my door
stating that it was a New York City order because rented rooms are not allowed
to have the door with a key.
Ms. Tascano filed a lawsuit against me for $9,600.00 in Small Claims Civil Court without giving me copies of the evidence that supports her claim. I refused a mediation because this case was not just a matter of my eviction it also was matter of sexual assault, harassment, intimidation, physical and emotional damage. The case was dismissed, and the judge gave me two months to leave the apartment. So, I did, and I started another terrible housing story as a homeless person.
