The New York Times - USA (2020-06-25)

A6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

Ramona Ferreyra missed her

grandmother so much that 18

months ago she left a six-figure

job in Hawaii and returned to the

South Bronx. She unexpectedly

found herself weathering the vi-

rus in her grandmother’s 17th-

floor apartment at a building for

older people.

As winter progressed, Ms. Fer-

reyra warned her grandmother,

Carmen Perez, 89, what to expect,

from masks and hand washing to

testing and social distancing. This

was not speculation: Ms. Fer-

reyra had spent a decade as a de-

fense department contractor in

Oahu, where she earned a mas-

ter’s degree in public policy and a

certificate in disaster manage-

ment. She had devised an emer-

gency response plan for a senior

housing facility in Oahu.

“This is such a classic pandemic

that there is nothing surprising

about it,” Ms. Ferreyra said.

“Then seeing what’s happening

here it’s difficult, because I can see

how each action equals a certain

percentage of deaths. Then those

percentages become people.”

At first, Ms. Perez, a retired

seamstress, thought her grand-

daughter was being alarmist. But

news reports, as well as the

deaths of a neighbor across the

hall and another longtime tenant,

persuaded her to stay put. Her

friends invite her downstairs to

break the boredom of isolation

and play dominoes, as they have

for decades. They swear they are

not sick.

“When everything goes away,

then I’ll go play,” Ms. Perez said.

“Now they’ve kept on playing like

it’s nothing. But this sickness

comes quickly, and I’m not taking

any chances.”

Ms. Ferreyra said it is odd being

stuck inside a building where she

has been a familiar face since

childhood. But the tenants have

seen her grow up. They know her

and trust her. And she, in turn, be-

came an advocate for them.

Last year, Ms. Ferreyra applied

for disability from Social Security

because of an immune disorder.

She said she was rejected, and the

request was treated almost dis-

missively, until she told them she

had a master’s degree. Her second

application is pending.

“It’s misleading to tell someone

in the South Bronx we’re in this to-

gether,” she said, “when the per-

As Princella Jamerson watched

news reports from Wuhan, China,

in December, she thought it would

only be a matter of weeks before

the coronavirus traveled around

the globe to her South Bronx com-

munity. She wasn’t just worried

about herself; she worried about

the thousands of her neighbors at

the Mill Brook Houses, where, as

head of the residents association,

she works to solve problems be-

tween tenants and housing au-

thority management.

In January, Ms. Jamerson con-

vened a residents’ meeting. “I told

them, ‘Y’all need to prepare your-

selves,’ ” she said, suggesting they

stock up on food and cleaning sup-

plies and be ready to hunker

down. “I told them it’s going to get

us. Why? People travel, and there

is no way that this hits someplace

else and nothit us.”

She knew that her neighbors

were vulnerable, whether from

age, chronic illness or because

they commute by subway to jobs

that often pay little but keep them

afloat.

Ms. Jamerson took over the

residents association at Mill

Brook in 2007. Having lived in the

neighborhood since 1978, she

knew how bad things had once

been. She watched as the crack

trade and AIDS devastated the

area, compounded by city plan-

ning that led to a concentration of

homeless shelters and drug treat-

ment centers that were rejected

by other neighborhoods.

“It was crazy around here,”

said Ms. Jamerson. “You’d walk

down the street and you’d see a

line like they were giving out

cheese. But it was crack.”

As the pandemic hit, rather

than wait for an official re-

sponse, Ms. Jamerson rallied

with residents and tenant lead-

ers. Before the coronavirus,

their concerns were mostly

about repairs that dragged on

for months. But as the economy

collapsed, they needed to ad-

dress rent, food and keeping

buildings clean.

“Nothing is kept clean,” Ms.

Jamerson said. “There’s spit in

‘WE’RE NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER’

Ramona Ferreyra, 39, Mitchel Houses

‘WE’RE LAST ON THE BATTLEFIELD WHEN EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING’

Princella Jamerson, 59, Mill Brook Houses

MITCHEL HOUSES

MILL BROOK HOUSES

MOTT HAVEN HOUSES

MELROSE HOUSES

A WALK ALONG138th Street in

Mott Haven offers a blunt diagno-

sis of a South Bronx community

troubled by chronic, and prevent-

able, illnesses. Asthma, obesity

and diabetes — which has

spawned its own economy, re-

flected in signs on lampposts offer-

ing cash for test strips — have put

the Bronx at the bottom of New

York’s health rankings.

Blocks of housing projects dot

this part of the borough, which has

long been saddled with the distinc-

tion of being the country’s poorest

urban congressional district. The

median family income is $28,038,

compared with $55,191 citywide.

More than a third of residents live

in poverty. Many work in nursing

homes, stock supermarket

shelves or drive city buses.

These conditions left the South

Bronx particularly vulnerable to

the coronavirus.

“You have overcrowded house-

holds,” said Daniel Barber, who

lives in the Jackson Houses in the

Bronx and is the president of the

New York City Housing Authori-

ty’s council of resident association

leaders. “Look at the work they do

— a lot of essential workers, home

health aides who still go to house-

holds and take care of other peo-

ple. The fact is, we’re all infected.”

The city’s housing authority,

which operates the nation’s larg-

est public housing system with

some 400,000 tenants, was under

federal investigation a few years

ago for submitting false paper-

work on lead inspections. But its

problems began decades earlier

when the federal government be-

gan to cut funding. Residents have

long complained about delayed re-

pairs and dirty buildings. The co-

ronavirus only made a bad situa-

tion intolerable.

The Bronx has the highest rates

of coronavirus cases, hospitaliza-

tions and deaths in the city, and

public housing residents have

been frustrated with the conflict-

ing messages from housing offi-

cials and the city about social dis-

tancing; delays in testing; and

lack of cleaning and personal pro-

tective gear. Residents said local

testing did not begin until mid-

May, after thousands had already

been infected.

A spokeswoman for NYCHA

said the agency had “informed the

residents of best health and safety

practices” and “access to re-

sources” through a combination of

social media, phone calls and

signs. The agency said it had also

secured cleaning contracts “from

Day 1” to “sanitize high-touch,

high-traffic areas in all 316 devel-

opments.”

However, residents said that

building maintenance did not im-

prove; contractors did only cur-

sory cleanings in the floors above

the lobby, they said. Instead, many

tenants cleaned the common ar-

eas on their own.

“Even though they knew what

was coming, they weren’t pre-

pared for this,” Mr. Barber said of

the housing authority. “They

waited for the city to take the lead,

and the city fumbled it.”

But like the South Bronx activ-

ists of a generation ago who de-

manded better housing and public

services, the residents are rolling

up their sleeves.

IN THE SOUTH BRONX

‘The City Fumbled It’:

How Four Families

Took On the Virus

Article by DAVID GONZALEZ

Photographs by GABRIELA BHASKAR

Tracking an OutbreakPublic Housing