NYCHA Ignores Deaf Residents' Pleas For Interpreters: Suit

NEW YORK CITY — Upper East Sider Wilfred Fowler has lived in a mold-infested home for more than four years because the city's public housing authority refuses to text before sending a repair person, whose knock the deaf Isaacs Houses tenant cannot hear, a new lawsuit contends.

Fowler is one of eight New Yorkers who accused the New York Public Housing Authority of discrimination against its deaf residents in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court, legal records show.

"All [NYCHA]’s acts, practices, and policies described herein constitute discrimination," the lawsuit contends. "Plaintiffs were entitled to the same housing services that [NYCHA] provides to other non-disabled persons."

Press representatives told Patch, “NYCHA does not comment on pending litigation.”

The tenants who filed suit come from public housing developments in Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens and share similar stories of requests for help ignored, according to the complaint.

Lourdes Torres, of the Dyckman Houses in Inwood, had no interpreter to help explain to NYCHA that mold covers the walls of her kitchen and bathroom and her ceiling came crashing down on her, the lawsuit contends.

Danienne Reed, of the Coney Island Houses in Brooklyn, has been unable to rectify conditions at the root of her 8-year-old daughter's health problems because the authority won't provide an interpreter to help her file reports, the suit contends.

Tamara Castillo, of the Mill Brook Houses, was so rudely denied an interpreter by NYCHA staff that her daughter refuses to speak to them, leaving the Bronx woman without anyone to help her communicate, the suit contends.

Marie Gregoire, of the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem, misses deliveries and repairs because NYCHA will not install a visual doorbell to replace the one she cannot hear, according to the suit.

Adeola Chester, of the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, must annually complete complicated forms to qualify for her housing, but in nine years has only been provided an interpreter twice, the lawsuit contends.

Attorneys Clara Smit and Bruce Gitlin, whom represent the eight, argue NYCHA violated city, state and federal law banning discrimination on the basis of disability, court records show.

The lawsuit demands damages be awarded to the eight NYCHA residents and an order mandating NYCHA provide American Sign Language interpreters to any resident in need of one.