Lower East Side Community: 'We Still Have Many Unanswered Questions' About Rivington House

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Neighbors to Save Rivington House, an organization of more than 100 community activists, released a statement on Wednesday reiterating that they won't rest until the Rivington House is returned to the community as a nursing home and health care facility.

The group's statement sent to Patch had three main points:

1.) The City Council hearing in which Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris testified was a step in the right direction and "deeply appreciated." "Without this painstaking review we would abandon people to the notion that government is rigged beyond repair," the statement said.

2.) The mayor's offer of 30 Pike St. as an affordable senior housing and health care facility is fundamentally not the same as a nursing home, and it is certainly not a replacement for the Rivington House.

"30 Pike would site housing for 100 seniors able to live independently (and/or in assisted living?)," the statement said. "It is under a bridge with constant thunderous traffic and trains. It would take many years of a ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] process to create. The seniors with need right now would not live long enough to see it."

3.) A full, transparent process should bring to light everyone's involvement in the Rivington House being sold to a luxury condo developer. The Rivington House should also be returned to the nursing home facility it was originally. Here's what the statement said:

Rivington House has 215 homes for those who need skilled nursing care. It overlooks a bucolic garden built by the neighborhood’s blood, sweat and tears and maintained for almost four decades solely by the community. It would be unconscionable to allow wealthy condo owners to swoop in to reap the rewards of a garden view in a park made beautiful and safe by the predominantly of color, poor and working and middle class community who created the garden at great personal risk.

The 215 homes inside Rivington House must be returned.

Neighbors to Save Rivington House is working with local elected officials and community members to put pressure on the mayor's office and state politicians to find legal means to return the building.

They would also like to see many more people who were involved with the sale to testify under oath.

"We still have many unanswered questions," the statement said.

The Rivington House was a care facility for the elderly. When The Allure Group bought the building, it had the city remove two deed restrictions from the property earlier this year, paving the way for the group to sell the building to a developer of luxury condos for a massive profit. Many sources in the community told Patch they feel The Allure Group purposely shielded its plans to sell the building, leaving many people who cared about the Rivington House and its faculty in the dark.

To try to make amends, the city is funneling the $16 million it received from waiving deed restrictions for The Allure Group on the Rivington House into 30 Pike St., which, it says, will be a new affordable housing facility for the elderly. But for Neighbors to Save Rivington House, and Council Member Margaret Chin, that's simply not enough.

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