by Imani Hall 

Homeless families at a cluster site homeless shelter in Norwood will have been slapped with relocation notices, terminating a controversial approach to housing the homeless.

The building at 15-19 W. Mosholu Parkway North has been a cluster site since 2009. About two weeks ago, a total of 13 homeless families received a memo from Aguila

Inc., the nonprofit that found housing for homeless tenants, stating that they “will be provided transfer information for placement in a new shelter location.” It’s unclear whether the building will remain a cluster site.

The memo mentions that transfer information for the shelter residents will be provided in the “coming weeks or months.”

Residents Worry

Cynthia Rosa, a cluster site tenant, has been living in the building since January. “I don’t care about myself because I can get along anywhere and I don’t bother with people, but I am worried about my children,” she said, a mother of a 9, 10 and 12-year-old. “Just thinking about it is rough because I don’t know when we are going or where we are going.”

Shelter resident Nydia Vargas also expressed concern about moving out with her three children. “Now I have to start worrying about school with my kids,” she said. “I was going to register my kids in school but I don’t know now because I don’t know how long we have.”

But paying tenant Crystal Santos expressed relief over news of the closing cite. “Before the shelter it was calm, peaceful and quiet,” she said, having filed numerous complaints since the shelter moved in. “People hang out after midnight, shouting, drinking. I mean, come on.”

Some tenants were shocked when the shelter came to the building and in fact were not at all thrilled about it. Henry Perry, another paying tenant living in the building for over 30 years, expressed some of the same relief. “Before the shelter came here it was like Trump Towers on Mosholu Parkway,” Perry said, angry that building management surprised rent paying tenants about the change.

“One day it wasn’t there, the next day it was and nobody told us anything.”

Why the change?

In many ways, the financial well for Aguila ran dry. During the Bloomberg years, Aguila Inc. thrived after the city was federally mandated to provide housing for the homeless. The city Department of Homeless Services (DHS), adhering to its policy in

housing the homeless within the “borough of origin,” set up cluster sites within the Bronx, home to the most shelters. DHS would pay Aguila subsidies that equated to market rate rents. So far, the nonprofit received $56.1 million in city subsidies, according to the Comptroller’s Office. But in July, DHS cut Aguila’s subsidies by an undisclosed percentage, according to DHS spokesman

Christopher Miller. “Aguila did not accept that rate cut,” said Miller, who assured the agency’s first priority is to find new housing for itinerant Bronxites.

“We are working with them on a closeout plan to ensure that our clients are safely transferred, hopefully within the Bronx,” he said.

A similar situation has played out for tenants at 941 Intervale Ave., another cluster site building managed by Aguila. Tenants were also given notices informing them they are being relocated.

What’s Next?

Perry still worried over the building’s future. “I’m worried about what comes next,” he said. “I did have a worker come here and tell me that if anyone comes here and tells us he have to leave that we don’t necessarily have to leave,” said Rosa, adding a DHS rep said she’d would receive transfer papers before she leaves.

“It gave me a little comfort because as per the memo we could leave today, we could leave tomorrow.”

Editor’s Note: The print version of the Norwood News shows the cluster site address to be 15-19 East Mosholu Parkway North. The correct address is 15-19 West Mosholu Parkway North. 

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.