Mother says voucher change is keeping her family apart following Brownsville fire
Cee says she found the Queens apartment on her own and that NYCHA inspected it and prepared paperwork for the move. But shortly before her planned Sept. 1 move-in, she says the voucher changed from three bedrooms to two.
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Cee thought she had found a way to bring her family home after a fire forced them out of their Chester Street apartment. She found a first-floor, three-bedroom place in Queens. Then, she says, her NYCHA voucher changed to only cover two bedrooms just days before she was supposed to move.
The move fell through. Four months after the May 15 fire, Cee is staying with a friend on Long Island. Her bedbound son, Timothy, is in a care facility in Queens, and her father, who she says has dementia, is in one in Brooklyn. News 12 is calling her Cee because she does not want her face shown.
"I don't have nowhere to secure my family, bring my father and my son home," she said.
Cee took News 12 back inside the Brownsville apartment. In Timothy's room, she pointed out his ventilator, oxygen equipment and boxes of medical supplies. She says that equipment is why the family had been approved for a third bedroom.
Cee says she found the Queens apartment on her own and that NYCHA inspected it and prepared paperwork for the move. But shortly before her planned Sept. 1 move-in, she says the voucher changed from three bedrooms to two. The landlord would not accept the two-bedroom amount for a three-bedroom apartment, she said.
NYCHA told News 12 that a two-bedroom voucher is appropriate for the two people currently approved as part of the household: Cee and Timothy. The agency said that if she wants to change who is included in the household, she must file a new interim recertification and provide the required documents.
That response does not explain why Cee says the additional bedroom for Timothy's medical equipment was no longer covered. Cee says she has submitted new accommodation paperwork and wants the three-bedroom approval restored. She is looking for a first-floor home because Timothy is bedbound, and says nurses are ready to help care for him there.
"I don't know how long I have with my baby," Cee said. "I want to bring him home."
