Thread: Nassau Officials Try a Different Approach to House Filled

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/nyregion/01raid.html

July 1, 2005
Nassau Officials Try a Different Approach to House Filled With Immigrants
By BRUCE LAMBERT
NEW CASSEL, N.Y., June 30 - For the second time in 11 days, authorities on Long Island cracked down Thursday on a single-family house overcrowded with Mexican immigrants. But this time was decidedly different: no raid and no immediate shutdown or eviction.

In focusing on the one-family house at 269A Wright Street in New Cassel, a hamlet in North Hempstead, town and Nassau County officials cited zoning violations, safety hazards and bed spaces for 30 people, including beds in hallways and one under a stairway.

On the surface, the situation paralleled the 44 beds and up to 64 tenants in a single-family house in Farmingville that Suffolk County and Brookhaven officials cited recently. But the Suffolk police and Brookhaven investigators raided that house early on June 19 and locked the doors the next day.

Tenants complained of little or no warning, trouble getting their belongings and having no place to go. County and town officials debated who, if anyone, was responsible for relocation. None was provided.

In New Cassel, by contrast, social workers came, not the police. They gave tenants a week's notice before the town enforces a court order to close the apartments. They offered referrals to government and nonprofit agencies to help relocate. On the sidewalk, officials held a harmonious news conference.

"We have to be tough on enforcing the law" against illegal housing, said the Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi. Yet, he added, "We have an obligation not to put people out on the street."

Across Long Island, political debate is growing over how to handle the social and economic problems stemming from the influx of thousands of immigrants into an already scarce and costly housing market with a shortage of multiple dwellings, rentals and subsidized housing.

When immigrants come for low-paying jobs, then crowd into makeshift quarters, longtime residents often complain about workers congregating on curbs waiting to be hired, neighborhood deterioration, overburdened schools and reduced property values. Some have expressed hostility to the new arrivals, especially illegal aliens.

"This is a very emotional issue," Mr. Suozzi said. "One side says, 'Get those people out of here.' The other side says, 'These are human beings who came here to live the American dream.' " He said that "illegal housing is a major issue" and overcrowding "is unfair to the rest of the residents who play by the rules and pay their taxes but see their quality of life decline."

In predominantly white Farmingville, the issue has generated protest marches by immigrants, their supporters and critics, angry words and even violence. That has not happened in New Cassel, where many blacks and Hispanics live.

"This community is not Farmingville," said Roger Corbin, the local Nassau County legislator. "People do not hate people in this community."

But Farmingville's councilman, James M. Tullo, said the town's focus was on enforcing the housing code and had nothing to do with race.

Though they followed a different course from their counterparts in Suffolk, Mr. Suozzi and the North Hempstead supervisor, Jon Kaiman, declined to comment about the contrast.

An advocate for the immigrants, the Rev. Allan B. Ramirez, did speak out. "The atmosphere is completely different," he said. "This action stands in stark contrast to what is being done in Suffolk."

In Farmingville, Pastor Ramirez accused the Suffolk County executive, Steve Levy, of racism and creating homelessness. Mr. Levy said his policies rescued tenants from danger and stopped neighborhood deterioration. He called critics the "lunatic fringe."

No one knows the extent of overcrowding. Officials in Brookhaven, Suffolk's biggest town in area and population, are investigating 123 such houses in Farmingville and estimated that there are 300 overcrowded houses in the town. Mr. Kaiman said North Hempstead, the smallest of Nassau's towns, is investigating violations at 173 houses but has no count of illegal apartments.

While the town "must continue to take an aggressive stance," Mr. Kaiman said, "we must not forget that the people being displaced are moms and dads, sons and daughters, old and young, people like you and me."

The tenants in New Cassel are in the country legally, and they paid $2,900 a month in rent and more for utilities, officials said. A county translator who spoke with two tenants, Rocio Ponciano and her husband, Elicio Tavaras, quoted them as saying they felt "embarrassed" by their situation and "scared" about what will happen.

Help them to "relocate" where? Why aren't they deported?

Good Grief....it's just musical chairs....not here, go there, here's some money, have a nice day....which it should just be:

Arrest; Hear; Deport with a Happy Meal of Course.



It's so SIMPLE to enforce the law. So why aren't they? To end our nation of course.

It's time for a Tea Party and it begins with:

DON'T SPEND, SAVE!!