Molike Frett, 14, his mother, Alice Frett, and her son Cyril Sheppard, 2, sit in their her new apartment that was furnished by the Brighton Heights Reformed Church.
Posted on 04/07/2010 7:49:33 PM PDT by varyouga
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Parishioners of Brighton Heights Reformed Church in St. George helped find and furnish a new apartment in New Brighton for a family with a disabled girl that was living in squalid conditions.
Alice Frett, a single mother of daughter Moasia, 9, who has cerebral palsy, and sons Tyrik, 18, Molike, 14, and Cyril Sheppard, 2, were renting an apartment in Tompkinsville that was badly in need of basic repairs and infested with vermin.
A walk through the old unit by the pastor and an Advance reporter and photographer showed broken windows, holes in walls and floors, malfunctioning appliances, peeling paint and graffiti. The family was paying the landlord $1,300 a month to live in that squalor for three years and the unit wasn't even handicapped accessible, said Rev. Dr. James Seawood, pastor of Brighton Heights Reformed Church.
"I look at her living area and it's just horrible, everything that one could see represents the worst of what a slum lord allows to happen," Rev. Seawood said.
"No repairs are made, there are rats and roaches in the place. It's really a horrible situation."
The church has been working with the family for more than two months to improve their living conditions. A hurdle was finding a place that was not only wheelchair accessible but a landlord that would accept Section 8 vouchers.
An anonymous donor provided about $5,000 to cover new furniture and housewares and the security deposit needed for the New Brighton apartment.
"We wanted to give her as many new items as possible because some of the old things were infested with roaches and lice," Rev. Seawood said.
He opened the back of a church van to show necessities such as pots and pans, plates, cups, silverware, pillows, bedding and towels. New beds, mattress and other furniture are being provided.
"The place that they're living in now compared to the place that they're moving out of, it's night and day," Rev. Seawood said.
The New Brighton ground-floor, handicapped accessible, three-bedroom apartment is clean and well maintained.
"I think it's a great thing, because now we're in a better place, we can live comfortably," Ms. Frett said.
Rev. Seawood hopes a potential landlord will come forward to offer a larger three- or four-bedroom, wheelchair-accessible apartment.
"Even though I feel like the place she's living in is too small for a mother and four children, they are as happy as they can be," Rev. Seawood said. "We're just pleased to be able to help this family with this disabled child."
A donor also is needed to fulfill Moasia's dream of going to Disney World.
"The people of Staten Island are very, very generous," Rev. Seawood said.
Molike Frett, 14, his mother, Alice Frett, and her son Cyril Sheppard, 2, sit in their her new apartment that was furnished by the Brighton Heights Reformed Church.
Welfare didn’t do it, God did.
That is NOT a success story. It is a story about generosity and sort of a lottery win.
The success will be when she is married, creates a stable home, and the kids are excelling in school.
Sometimes MS.FRETT SHEPPHARD you simply have to clean yourself. It will not be 6 months until that new unit will be just a filty, trust me. That's just how people like you live and expect others to clean it up.
Aren't they also, by far, the most Republican part of the city?
$1300 a month for rent???
You can get a McMansion for that in Texas.
Where is the welfare in the story? This sounds like a private charitable effort.
Had a few sets of tenants that complained about dirty floors, etc. (spotless when they moved in)- these tenants will move every 2-3 years in order not to have to clean an apartment. It costs them the security deposit - these people do not get them back - but they get their nice clean apartment to wreck yet again.....
I hope the congregation treated Alice to a tubal ligation also.
The church has been working with the family for more than two months to improve their living conditions. A hurdle was finding a place that was not only wheelchair accessible but a landlord that would accept Section 8 vouchers.
Section 8 vouchers ARE WELFARE.
“$1300 a month for rent???
You can get a McMansion for that in Texas.”
I live on Long Island and that would be the rent for a studio apartment not including utilities. It is very expensive here. Staten Island is a borough of NYC and the rents there are astronomical. Houses cost over half a million dollars. It is crazy, and someday I am hoping to leave. Most of my old friends have left this area and are living comfortably elsewhere, never having returned.
Trying to keep up with these people is horrible, trash it and move on. New storm doors, they took the bottom plate out so the dog could have a doggie door. Kids pulled every thing off the coutertop edge. Break every light switch plate, as that is where they hide their dope. I hate these welfare scum, hate them all.
Whatever we give them is better than what they can buy, which is nothing.
And don't anyone ask why we rent to them, it is because they have so trashed the areas, that those are the only people who now live there. There is no redeeming the neighborhood, so we do what we have to, to keep up our investment.
Get out. Trust me, it’s worth it. I went from Manhattan (born there) to Brooklyn, to Staten Island (best of the boroughs) to upstate, which finally made me realize that the whole city thing is a joke. We’re moving to upstate SC and we’re not missing a beat. NY is a waste of time in every way imaginable.
“Get out. Trust me, it’s worth it.”
How long did you live upstate NY? What made you decide to move to SC? I am curious because, as I said in my post, I would like to leave this area someday, and am interested in feedback regarding different areas on the East coast. Thanks.
I am glad that private charity did the right thing, better that than the gov’t, but no mention of a job, no mention of any daddy for any of the kids. And she already lives off the gov’t apparently.
This is just sad.
And most of them are attached duplexes with no backyard!
That’s one welfare family down, and 17.3 MILLION TO GO...
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