LOWER EAST SIDE — Jimmy Jannuzzi, who has stage-four lung cancer, was shocked when the city told him he must leave the two-bedroom apartment he has shared with his sister for the past 15 years.
Jannuzzi's appeal of the order was denied on Oct. 31 but, when the city changed its tune on Monday — telling a DNAinfo reporter he would be allowed to stay — he was skeptical.
“They did not tell me that I’m not going to be removed [from my apartment],” said Jannuzzi, 61, explaining that he didn't know about the decision until a DNAinfo reporter informed him Monday evening.
Over the summer, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development told Jannuzzi and 38 other tenants from the Land's End I apartment complex at 257 Clinton St. that they needed to “downsize” and move into smaller units or else risk losing part of the federal Section 8 funding they use to help pay rent.
Like hundreds of Section 8 tenants across the city, the Land’s End residents were told to move into smaller apartments because HPD considers them “over-housed” — meaning that their apartments are too large for the number of people living in them, based on a new set of guidelines released last year.
The controversial practice is part of the agency’s response to a $35 million budget cut that stemmed from the federal sequester. HPD’s downsizing has faced opposition from tenants who have fought against the tactic, as well as elected officials who have asked HPD to reconsider.
In Jannuzzi’s case, downsizing meant moving into a one-bedroom unit, even though he lives with his sister and receives treatment from home health care workers who stop by during the day and stay through the night when necessary.
Tenants said HPD gave them 30 days to appeal the decision. Disabled residents can also apply for an exemption, HPD said. A little more than half of the requests have been approved, according to a department spokesman.
Jannuzzi said he applied for an exemption and asked his doctor to provide testimony to prove that he could not move because of his health. However, HPD denied his request, according to an Oct. 31 letter.
“I couldn’t believe it. I just never thought that that would happen,” said Jannuzzi, who recently ended chemotherapy and now receives hospice care at home.
HPD’s letter said a one-bedroom apartment was a more appropriate apartment size for the siblings and that “no identifiable relationship has been made between the accommodation requested and the household member’s disability.”
But the cancer has spread to his brain and pancreas and his health is slowly deteriorating, he said. He now has an oxygen tank in his apartment, he said, and takes morphine to manage the pain and help him breathe.
“I don’t have much longer. I’m not on any treatment,” Jannuzzi said. Doctors, he added, have given him three months to live.
HPD did not say why it had initially denied Jannuzzi’s request for exemption, but said that he would not be downsized.
“Mr. Jannuzzi will not be required to move,” said an HPD spokesman. “We reached out to Mr. Jannuzzi today to discuss the situation as well as what additional information may be needed in order to formally grant the request.”
Jannuzzi said the city did call him Monday afternoon. HPD also asked him to send over documents from his physician, but he said officials did not tell him that he would be able to stay in his apartment.
He said he was happy to hear the news, but wished the city had told him first.
“You’re not the person who’s supposed to tell me that," he told a DNAinfo reporter.
"They’re supposed to tell me that and they didn’t tell me."
