Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and civic leader Marie Persans stand in front of two abandoned homes on 163rd Road in Hamilton Beach. Anna Gustafson/The Forum Newsgroup
Marie Persans knows 163rd Road in Hamilton Beach.
The civic leader and retired teacher knows its history, its families, its residents who look out for one another. She knows if a stranger walks down the street, there will be many a pair of eyes peeking out from behind partially opened blinds to make sure they’re not up to no good.
And, for too long, she has known its empty houses, the properties that have sat abandoned, its owners pushed out by foreclosure long ago. For at least one of the homes on the street – a place of tight-knit middle-class – she knows how it was vacated after Hurricane Sandy, its rugs and curtains still remaining nearly a year after the storm’s waters receded.
She knows the residents of 163rd Road deserve better – deserve something more than a line of abandoned homes, their insides likely rotting from the mold left in Hurricane Sandy’s wake.
“The kids that used to break in, they don’t want to go in anymore because they’re so gross,” Persans said of the abandoned homes following Sandy.
“Kids have standards too, you know,” joked Persans, who has spent countless hours cleaning up the areas around the vacated spots, doing everything from mowing the grass to getting the banks that own the properties to seal the premises so children or other individuals are not able to break in.
For properties like the ones that plague 163rd Road – and they are scattered throughout South Queens and the Rockaways – Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Rockaway) said he is calling on New York’s five major banks to stop neglecting sites that have been foreclosed, or are in foreclosure, in post-Sandy neighborhoods. The hurricane both caused people to move from their homes, leaving them to fall into foreclosure, and transformed already-abandoned homes into one big health concern, thanks to issues like mold.
“The banks should not only make repairs, but make enough repairs to get the homes back on the market,” Goldfeder said as he stood before a Hamilton Beach home that has remained empty since the storm last October. “It would be a total neighborhood changer to get young families living in these homes.”
Goldfeder has sent letters to JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, CitiMortgage, and Ocwen Loan Servicing to demand that they maintain the seized properties so they do not cause the downfall of a neighborhood where many a resident has grown up and raised a family.
“These are private entities, but we can put public pressure on them to let them know we won’t let them get away with cheating our neighborhoods,” Goldfeder said.
Persans, along with many other residents, too said they want to see the problem spots become places where they, once again, will see families outside in the yard.
“I’d like to see a lot more taken care of,” Persans said.
The assemblyman said he has gotten varied responses to his letters to the banks, from Chase being one of the most responsive institutions to HSBC being one of the least. Earlier this year, HSBC announced it would permanently closely its Rockaway Beach branch, despite Goldfeder’s pleas to remain open for the residents recovering from the devastating natural disaster.
“JPMorgan Chase has gone above and beyond to respond to customer and community concerns, and I am confident they will once again do the right thing,” Goldfeder said. “HSBC has proven to be a bad community partner, and this may be an opportunity to do the right thing. The last thing a homeowner should have to worry about while they’re rebuilding is the property next door.”
By Anna Gustafson
