Published: July 02, 2009 09:51 pm      

NORTH TONAWANDA: Trouble for tenants continues

Things have gone from bad to worse for two Oliver Street renters abruptly evicted last month.

First it was National Grid, which shut off their power after the landlord collected rent and told them to get out in early June.

Then the North Tonawanda government intervened, appealing to the company and having the power restored a week after it was turned off June 15 — following a week without power. And the company agreed to waive a more than $700 in reconnection fees though both tenants of 970 Oliver St. had paid for the month of June.

Now National Fuel is threatening to terminate services — like the electric company, the utility was in contract not with the tenants, but with landlord Vasiliy Ukharkin, who’s whereabouts are unknown. Gas and electric were included in the rent, meaning 20-year tenant Phyllis Richards and neighbor Tony Jacob don’t have much room to negotiate with the companies.

In getting the power turned on, city officials worked to advocate on behalf of the two. Jacob has two small children and Richards relies on an electronic breathing machine. Now Building Inspector Cosimo Capozzi and Plumbing Inspector Dave Martin are again assessing the problem and Mayor’s Assistant Jeff Mis again intends to ply contacts with the utility companies to keep the renters afloat.

“He requested some information from them so that he could go to bat for them and do the same thing we did with the electriic,” Mayor’s secretary Gregg Schnitzer said, recounting a recent conversation with Mis.

Mis’ past efforts bought the two some time on the electricity front. Nevertheless, on Monday, a day after the city’s water department worked to pump out a newly flooded basement, Richards got this letter from National Fuel:

“In accordance with the bankruptcy code and the rules and regulations of our tariff, you are to provide us with a security deposit of $820,” the letter begins.

As she wondered aloud what she will do, her boyfriend Chris O’Lay stood outside, staring into the building’s flooded basement as plumbing and heating contractor Marty Hall waded through inches of sewage and rain water, trying to diagnose the reasons the occupants now also don’t have any hot water. Both pilot lights connected to each apartment’s hot water heaters were snuffed out by the muck, as it turned out.

There are still no firm answers for O’Lay, Richards and Jacob, and the stress is rising.

Richards suffered a panic attack last Thursday and O’Lay said he called 911 as a precaution. Before the lights came back on last month, she had also became ill when the machine she uses for her sleep apnea couldn’t be turned used, resulting in sickness and the need to skip work.

“Some people say it’s getting to the point where (the house) is uninhabitable,” O’Lay said, “and basically, we’d just get kicked out.”

Despite being told to leave by an unsympathetic Ukharkin at the 11th hour, the tenants have remained, in part because the cost of moving — including coming up with security deposits and other expenses — is next to impossible for them.

Richards wished to appeal to any local landlord who might be in a position to negotiate some way for her to relocate, as O’Lay explained he’s been working the phones looking for an affordable rental.

Police records show officers advised Ukharkin to reactivate the electricity at the time it was shut off several weeks ago, but it remains unclear whether any charges will pressed against him.

Buffalo attorney Bob Friedman, who specializes in housing-related cases, said regardless of the renters’ agreement with Ukharkin, the abrupt termination of services and the fact that they were never formally evicted in court may amount to harassment on his part.

“The landlord’s not permitted to do that. There are some specific prohibitions,” he said, adding there has been a spike in renter’s in similar circumstances in Buffalo, were home buyers residing elsewhere are snapping up cheap houses on the Internet and renting them from afar.

At the first sign of trouble, when the lights went out at 970 Oliver on June 15, O’Lay’s first call was to the United Way, which he said first pointed him in the direction of city fathers for assistance.

Director George O’Neil said the chances of finding other sources of aid to cover things like moving expenses are slim to none. Although he didn’t say the situation was hopeless, he hinted it would be easier to find help from groups like the YWCA or NYCAP if they were actually homeless, in which case shelter could be provided free of charge.

“There are a number of programs out there if (the programs) don’t run out of money,” he said. “Once they run out of the government subsidy then it becomes difficult. It’s touch and go.” he said, adding the two would likely have to “shop around” on the off chance there’s financial aid available. But grants to defray those costs aren’t common.

“Unfortunately that’s one of the areas that doesn’t have a funding stream to it,” O’Neil said.

If they do move, however murky that decision appears to be, O’Lay said because of the efforts of officials to help in their time of need it’s likely they’ll try to stay in the city.

“For everybody being as helpful as they’ve been ... no way we’re going to move out of North Tonawanda,” O’Lay said.