Sally Hernandez-Pinero New York City Housing Authority Commissioner July 31, 1993 Dear Ms Hernandez-Pinero: I am a resident of Wise Towers and have several matters that I need you to investigate. 1) Why was I given this apartment? Prior to receiving this apartment I was engaged in a series of meetings with the staff at (the) Ward's Island men's shelter for mistreatment. At a Feb 2 meeting with my caseworker, David Jacobs, I was given a letter from a Mr. Moss from Wise Towers "dated" Jan 27, postmarked Jan 29. He claimed that they had been trying to contact me for months and a form was enclosed for me to indicate my continued interest. My caseworker had called Wise Towers several times before and no mention was made of this. In a Jan 21 letter to the HRA Inspector General about duplicitous dealings by my caseworker and others, along with other complaints, I had mentioned that I suspected that someone might be blocking my getting an apartment since I was told by Shirley Jones at WIN several months before, who knew someone at Wise Towers, that I was next on the list for available apartments, but nothing had occurred yet. Could my letter have removed this possible barrier or was my getting an apartment an attempt to remove me from a possible legal battle with the shelter? When shown the apartment on Feb 9 by Mr. Sachs, a Housing Asst, he briefly alluded to not wanting to go to court. Another interesting occurence (sic) happened on Jan 29 with the death of Bonnie Vargas, the hostage who was killed at 93rd and Riverside during a gun battle between police and Mujahid Muhammad (aka Sidney Fisher) after robbing the Chemical Bank on 91st and Broadway. I have had a theory that many criminal acts have occurred in response to certain of my actions. The Vargas killing seems to fit the same pattern. The Wise Towers office is located on 91st like Chemical Bank and my building is located on 93rd like the building where Ms. Vargas was killed. Also, one of the police officers who originally responded to the bank robbery was named Michael Moss which is the same last name as the letter writer from Wise Towers. On Jan 26, between the time I mailed the letter to the HRA and the time of the Vargas killing, I had a meeting with my shelter caseworker and no mention was made of an apartment, though certain things happened, such as the transfer to another shelter of an irritating client, that seemed to point to the knowledge by the shelter of the HRA letter. It was not until a Feb 2 meeting, after the Bonnie Vargas killing, that I received the Wise Tower letter. The envelope was postmarked Jan 29, the day of the killing, though the letter itself was dated, I believe, Jan 27, but any date could have been written. Also, previous HA correspondence to me had been sent to my PO Box, but this letter had been handed to me by my caseworker at the shelter. Or rather, could the killing have been a response to my being given an apartment? After I was actually given the apartment on Feb 9, I had an extremely difficult time getting the initial rent money from my IM 32 welfare office. I was not able to actually get the money till Feb 23 after many irritating and unusual events and delays. Someone apparently did not want me to move. And on Feb 24, the day after I moved in, Bonnie Bear (another Bonnie), who was 1/2 Japanese. (I am of Japanese descent) was shot and killed in Tribeca by Tyrone Walker and Walter Diaz. Another response of (sic - "or") just coincidence? 2) Why was I brought into Housing Court? On May 21,.1 was faced with the unpleasant choice of either making an appearance in Housing Court or having my apartment tkaen (sic - "taken") away from me. I feel this was unnecessay (sic) since my rent is paid my welfare through direct vendor. (i.e. paid directly from welfare to Wise Towers) The purpose of direct vendor is to remove the presumably irresponsible tenant from the rent paying process. Since this is the case, if rent has not been received and the tenant has done nothing wrong (my record is clean), then why should the tenant be subjected to the degrading, stressful, time consuming and costly prospect of eviction? The tenant has been effectively removed from the process by a system endorsed and perpetuated by the very agency which subjects the tenant to the above mentioned threats and indignities that are a result of the agency's own system. It seems to me that in any situation where the HA has a resonable (sic) expectation of receiving its rent money, both eviction and the threat of eviction, should not be tolerated. If the rent money is coming from welfare or another large agency, it would seem that the HA does, in fact, have that reasonalbe (sic) expectation. If a person is receiving welfare and is shown to be unreliable in the payment of rent (not my case), then the recourse of direct vendor is the simple and humane solution, not the threat of eviction. If the HA has a problem with the speed in which Welfare delivers the rent money, they should take Welfare to Court, not the powerless tenant. In my own case, I picked up a 14-day notice from Wise Towers, postmarked Apr 14, on Apr 21 that said I owed $200 in rent. On the same day, I also received a similar note from Mr. Sachs under my door. On Apr 22, I called my welfare worker, Mr. D'andres, who said he would start working on it and mail it in. I called Mr. Sachs, who was not in, so I left a message telling what Mr. D'andres had said along with his phone number. On Apr 23, I called Mr. Sachs, again and he said he hadn't had a chance to call Mr. D'andres yet. Next Monday, Apr 26, I called Mr. Sachs again, who said he couldn't reach Mr. D'andres yet. I called Mr. Sachs again that afternoon and he now claimed to have written a letter to my welfare office on Apr 20 and they either wrote back or he called them and they said there was no Mr. D'andres working there. He asked my caseworkers name. I told him. He said an unusual phone number for Mr. D'andres. I gave him the correct number. He then asks for my number. I'm getting a little upset now and said that I didn't understand what was going on, that I had left Mr. D'andres' name and number in my message to him last week and now he was acting like he had no idea what was going on. Mr. Sachs called me back in about 5 minutes and said I had to pick up a letter and hand deliver it tomorrow to IM 32. I became quite upset and told him that my having to walk 3 miles to deliver a letter for something that was not my fault felt like harassment. His response was a threat of eviction. I did eventually pick up the letter and delvered (sic) it to Mr. D'andres the next day. On May 5, I received a Notice of Special Grant from IM 32 saying they would pay the back rent. On May 11, a Petition for Non-Payment of Rent was slipped under my door. On. May 13, I went to Housing Court to answer the petition. On May 21, I went to Housing Court. An HA attorney said the check had been received and the case would be dropped. It is unacceptable to me to have been put through all this for something over which I had no control or influence. I went out of my way to be cooperative in resolving the situation. Why was I treated so poorly, especially after having lived at Wise Towers for so short a time? For a possible explanation I have to return to the murder and intrigue that I touched on before. 3. On Apr 14, I went to the trial of Thaddeus Davis to deliver statements on a theory connecting that case to the Union Square Subway Crash case and myself. I had gone to the Union Square trial in October and strange things also began happening to my welfare payments at that time, though there are other possible explanations. The 14-day notice I received was postmarked for the same date as the Davis trial, Apr 14. Though this was the date that the letter would legitimately have been mailed if Welfare had not mailed the rent on my Apr 12 disbursment (sic) date, I have to wonder if my check would have somehow been sent had I not gone to the Davis trial or it some other things had not happened that I will bring up in Section 3. And if Welfare did not send the check regardless of the Davis trial, then why was it not sent in the first place? I received the 1st month's check on Feb 23, filled out a form for direct vendor, received furniture money, etc. On Mar 26, my PA grant was raised from $22.50 twice a month, which I received while living at the shelter, to $68.50 twice a month, so supposedly, tangible notice had been made in Welfare's files of my change of address before the Apr 12 disbursement date on which rent was supposedly not sent and gave Wise Towers the opportunity to give me the 14-day notice. On May 5, I delivered more statements at the Anwar Abdul murder trial. On May,11, a Petition for Non-Payment of Rent was slipped under my door. Again, would the petition have been given to me had I not gone to the Abdul trial? Or, to take another track, perhaps the petition would not have been given if I had agreed to join the Tenant Patrol at a heavily advertised Tenant Patrol meeting the night before. And lastly, at my Housing Court appearance on May 11, a case involving a black male was heard dirctly (sic - "directly") before mine. He had the unusual name of Mr. Cheese and needed a sign language interpreter. The symbolic uses of "cheese" (rat? snitch? bait?) and of deaf/mutes (non-verbal signals? my non-talkative personality?) have been obliquely presented to me in the past. If you could look into this facet of my case it might yield an interesting clue. 3) Who is Narain Wadhwani? I believe Mr. Wadhwani became manager of Wise Towers around the time I moved in. One of the other tenants said he started in Jan "93, (sic - "'93") a month before I moved in, but certainly during the time of my conflicts with the Wards Island shelter when my eventual move to Wise Towers could have been a possibility. On May 26, Mr. Wadhwani's son, Shaleen, was shot and killed and (sic - "by") Chandran Nathan in Manhasset, Long Island. Could this murder have some connection with the threat of evicting me from an apartment that so much trouble had been gone through for me to receive in the first place? I was also considering a lawsuit in response to my unfair treatment. Though I had mentioned the possibility of a lawsuit to several others since my answering the Petition for Non-Payment on May 13,my (sic) strongest and most public declaration came on May 26, when I was being interviewed for possible jury duty in a case involving the City of New York. Did someone hold Mr. Wadhwani responsible for any of these events? Recently, I read about the discovery of the murderers of an Indian prince, Chitresh Khedker and his wife. At the time of the murder, I didn't make any specific connections, but since then I have learned that Mr. Wadhwani is also Indian. And it was also said that the 2 men were also suspected of the murders of Eric Price 4. and Milton Setzer at 900 West End near 104th. Not only did the fact that one victim had my first name and that the murder site was so close to my building provide interesting connections, but apparently, Mr. Setzer was a member of Al Anon, a group which played a role in my problems with the Wards Island shelter (though I I (sic) was not a member). Prince Khedker was killed on Apr 12. This was 2 days before the postmark on the 14-day notice that was mentioned previously. Could the Prince's death have been some sort of message to Mr. Wadhwani to send me the 14-day notice? Or not to send the notice? On Apr 10, 2 days before the Prince's murder, Jeffrey Rose, a mentally ill homeless man stabbed a baby with a pen near 1st and 78th. He apparently dropped by the homeless center on 237 E. 77th, the first place I stayed at when I came to New York. Could the pen have been a symbol for the follow-up letter I wrote to Mr. Capoziello of Adult Services on Apr 2 concerning the lack of response to my original letter of complaint against the shelter on Jan 21? 4) Miscellaneous. Other things have happened. I got another 14-day notice postmarked Jun 2 saying that I owed $142, even though on Jun 8, I picked up a letter from Mr. Reinstein of Wise Towers for my Welfare re-certification and there was no mention of my owing any money. There was no hot water in my building the day after my Housing Court appearance. Also, someone yelled out in my hallway, "you're doing this to me after I gave you this apartment?" I assumed it was a reference to the possible lawsuit. The hot water also went out the week-end before your HA Comp Grant conference at Pace University on July 17, on which week-end, the elevators also went out. I've had periodic wrong number phone calls that seem to coincide with things like the elevator going out. People sometimes knock on my 19th floor apartment door who I don't know. Small packages and magazines addressed to #19K are sometimes delivered to my #19L box. Strange people are in the elevators and lobby sometimes. And just last Wednesday on Jul 28 at 9:50 am, Mr Sachs gave me another note saying I owed $117. I knew that $83.50 was still owed, but welfare said they would send another special grant. I asked Mr. Sachs if he could tell me what the charges were for, what time period, if welfare did not send the latest rent payment and he refused to tell me. I went down to the office later that day and my rent book showed that Welfare had indeed sent my latest rent payment that day on Jul 28. When I brought this to Mr. Sach's Attention, (sic) he said it came in the mail. My disbursement date was Jul 27, so they should have received the check in the Jul 28 mail at the earliest. Why would he give me that note before checking the mail? Why would he not tell me what period the charges were for?If (sic) these people are so inept or unprofessional, why are they working here? If they're not inept, but playing some sort of game with me, why are they doing it and by whose decree? Eric Nakao Wise Towers Mailing address: PO Box Rockefeller Ctr Station NY, NY 10185 posted: january 1, 2005 document update: web page update: top |