News

Invitation to learn about local legislative drafting

We are gathering…Press Release below…

PRESS CONFERENCE and Community Questions and Answers

Monday, June 27^th, 11:30 a.m. 184 Eldridge Street, 2^nd Floor

Contacts:

Tessa Huxley, 917-751-0723

Amy Brenna, abrenna@universitysettlement.org, 212-940-9090 ext. 3385

Lower East Side Neighborhood Comes Together to

SAVE RIVINGTON HOUSE

Over 1,100 Signatures Gathered in Two Weeks

Mayor’s Office Invited to Hear the Concerns of the Community

WHAT:  Neighbors and elected officials will gather on Monday, June 27th to voice growing concerns and provide additional information on the fall-out from the loss of Rivington House nursing home services, and provide an update on investigations. The Mayor’s Office have has invited to receive over 1,100 petition signatures and a book of community comments culled from the petition drive.

BACKGROUND: Since May 28^th 2016, over 1,100 on-line supporters of The Neighbors to Save Rivington House’s Change.org petition – “Mayor De Blasio: Return Rivington House” have joined neighbors, small businesses, former staff and residents, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Congress Member Nydia Velasquez, Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Member Margaret Chin, Council Member Rosie Mendez, Comptroller Scott Stringer, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, US Attorney Preet Bharara, and Community Board 3 in shocked disbelief over the secretive removal of this lifesaving community resource from the disabled, the elderly and infirm and to demand Rivington House be returned to the people who need it most.

Signatories from across the street and across the country as well as former residents and their families and friends have signed our petition and expressed their outrage:

This neighborhood welcomed the creation of an AIDS Hospice in 1992 when the stigma of that scourge was at its height and the targeting of those communities who were suffering were still being shunned. Staff and residents built a community out of those ashes and neighbors gifted their garden lot to the institution with the ironclad agreement that the building would remain in service to the public in perpetuity.  Rivington House helped to save my partner’s life. It should NOT be turned into condos. SCOTT MORGAN

For the better part of ten years I volunteered, then trained volunteers, at Rivington House. I learned and loved the residents there, and had many happy moments when they’d stop me in the neighborhood to say hello. They were a part of the community. I also voted for Bill de Blasio. That the deed restriction was altered under hinky circumstances to benefit real estate developers disappoints me wildly. We need more services for the poor and infirmed, not for the wealthy. Restore the deed. Restore Rivington House.  KIMBERLY MASSENGILL

As a former resident of Eldridge St at Rivington, I am dismayed that after fighting for so long to restore the Rivington House to the public service, you, the mayor we were waiting for, would allow the betrayal of that purpose. I’m even more shocked to have heard you on the radio defending yourself by saying your people “lied “to you! Really? Then did you fire them? How could you take away such an important community resource? I thought you were the mayor who defended the needy, who had more discretion about where investment was appropriate. What a sad day for the Lower East Side! KATYA PETERSON

As elected and enforcement officials work to ensure laws and procedures are in place to prevent future Rivington House scenarios in other New York neighborhoods and four separate investigations are underway into The Allure Group and how the critical deed restriction that allowed for the sale of a protected healthcare facility was lifted, Neighbors to Save Rivington House and elected officials will continue to press for the home to be returned to the community.

“The loss of a community healthcare facility at Rivington House is simply unacceptable,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer, who has introduced deed restriction reform legislation (Int. 1182) with Councilmember Margaret Chin. “I will not stop fighting until we make this community whole and we reform the city’s laws on deed restrictions. What happened to Rivington House must not be allowed to happen again.”

Council Member Margaret Chin said, “I stand with the members of our community who deserve to know exactly what happened at Rivington House, including why this neighborhood asset was allowed to be flipped to make way for luxury condos,” said Council Member Margaret Chin. “Along with my fellow elected officials, I am continuing to push the Administration for answers, and to pursue all options to return Rivington House to the community that welcomed it, and invested in it. I thank Neighbors to Save Rivington House and University Settlement for helping to lead this petition effort that shows the depth and breadth of community outrage over the greed and false promises made by Allure Group and others.”

“We continue to need answers and action after the terrible closure of Rivington House,” said New York State Senator Daniel Squadron. “Healthcare at Rivington House has been an important community priority and should have been protected. I thank my colleagues, the Neighbors to Save Rivington House, University Settlement, and community members for continuing the push.”

New York State Assemblymember Alice Cancel added, “All actions concerning the deed restrictions must be halted immediately and it must be restored to a care facility. The closed door backroom deal has tainted any agreement the city has made.”

Neighbors to Save Rivington House formed out of groups of concerned community residents, community organizations and leaders who came together to keep Rivington House on the Lower East Side, knowing first-hand how vital the home was to the people who lived and worked there.

“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,” said K Webster, President Sara Roosevelt Park Coalition.

###

A few photos from the day. Thanks everyone for helping out and for coming out!

Debra Jeffreys-Glass organizer, Jane and her band of readers, Cathy, Jenifer, Bob, Hollywood, Ted…..and Irving Louis Lattin’s music!

From Politico:

“The state attorney general’s office believes the company mislead government officials in the Rivington House sale.”

Personal thank yous to the AG’s office would be helpful!  https://www.ag.ny.gov/questions-comments-attorney-general-eric-t-schneiderman?wssl=1

“The not-for-profit Rivington House entity, which the Allure Group came to control in 2015, did not, as was required under the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law, either seek to dissolve or to obtain approval for disposing of its nursing home operations at 45 Rivington Street,”…

anything that might nullify the deal.

….Schneiderman’s office, one of four entities investigating the Rivington House deal, has concluded it has “sufficient cause to object to any other proposed sales of not-for-profit organizations, in particular nursing homes, to the Allure Group and its owners and agents.”

“Allure made clear and repeated promises to continue the operation of two nursing homes for the benefit of a vulnerable population — promises that proved to be false. Until we conclude our investigation, we will object to Allure buying additional nursing homes,” a spokesman for Schneiderman said.”