EAST VILLAGE — A disabled former hospital employee who requires frequent dialysis treatments is among the roughly 50 residents being booted from a Mount Sinai property that's slated for demolition to make way for a new hospital facility.
For nearly three decades, Billy Ortiz worked the night shift as a security guard for the residence at 321 E. 13th St., which houses training physicians and staff of the nearby New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, while living in one of the rooms. He has remained at the residence even after a heart attack forced him to quit his job in 2013.
But as Mount Sinai prepares to knock down the building to facilitate the “sweeping transformation” of its downtown hospital network, Ortiz is now being told he needs to clear out by the end of the month or weather a severe rent hike — a prospect Ortiz says has left him feeling powerless.
“It’s like that story of Goliath and David,” said Ortiz. “They have all this power and all these lawyers, and what do you have? Just you.”
Mount Sinai began notifying residents of the evictions as early as May 2, according to a letter delivered to one resident. Another resident, a nurse at the infirmary, said she received an email in April.
However, Ortiz said he was first notified in June, when he received an incentive package being offered to all residents by Mount Sinai’s Real Estate Division.
Three months' rent will be reimbursed by Mount Sinai and a moving allowance will be allocated for residents who signed a contract guaranteeing they would get out by the end of the year, according to employees and a hospital representative — an extension of an initial deadline of Aug. 31.
But Ortiz refused to sign the contract, stating he was anxious about legally binding himself to a deadline when he wasn’t sure he could find an apartment that met his needs in so short a time — his many health problems necessitate either a ground-floor unit or a building with an elevator, while his fixed income significantly limits his budget.
“I can’t stand for more than two minutes without excruciating pain because of a herniated disc,” he explained. “And they want me to move…I will leave, but at my own pace at my own time.”
In addition to the herniated disc and the dialysis treatments he must receive three times a week, Ortiz suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an incurable lung disease that makes breathing difficult, as well as asthma and diabetes.
In late July, Ortiz got a letter repeating the offer for the incentives package, but still asking that he clear out by Aug. 31. He never responded, and is now being barraged with eviction notices stating he must clear out by Aug. 31 or else pay “fair market value” for the space, where he currently pays a subsidized rate of roughly $1,200.
A social worker assigned to his case has most recently offered to help temporarily relocate him to a facility in an outer borough, said Ortiz — but moving twice would double the stress and strain, he claims, while the distance would put him out of reach of his many doctors in Lower Manhattan as well as his sister, who often serves as his caretaker.
A hospital spokesman said Mount Sinai is trying to work with Ortiz, but declined to comment further.
“As with all of the residents, we are working closely with Mr. Ortiz to help make as easy and fluid a transition as possible,” said spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt. “However, this is a private matter and not one we will discuss publicly.”
Two floors above Ortiz, an 81-year-old former medical technician of New York Eye and Ear — which was only absorbed by Mount Sinai in in 2013 — says she is tired of being pressured to relocate and resents not being given more time to find new lodgings.
“I was so mad,” says Natividad Acosta, who suffers from osteoporosis, on hearing the news.
“They should really give you a year…It’s so hard, especially when you sick.”
Mount Sinai reps are currently working with Acosta on relocating to a senior home, and have offered to subsidize her first year's rent, she said, adding she welcomes the change but detests the pressure of the deadline.
Training physicians in the building are getting a similar deal, according to a hospital rep and an employee — the trainees will be relocated to a set of Stuyvesant Town apartments and will have a year of subsidized rent.
Nurses, however, have been offered the same incentives package as the other tenants, a Mount Sinai rep confirmed.
One nurse scrambling to find new lodgings said they had asked Mount Sinai for a similar deal, or at least a deadline extension into the springtime. Both requests were denied.
“I was emotionally troubled…this [job] has been more than half my lifetime,” said nurse Elena Tejada, who has worked at New York Eye and Ear about 30 years.
“Considering the number of years we’ve worked here, I feel that should be compensated.”
Mount Sinai Health System in May announced it will gradually be closing the Beth Israel hospital over the next few years while transitioning to a network of smaller facilities throughout lower Manhattan, including a much smaller hospital at East 14th Street and Second Avenue.
A representative for the hospital declined to specify exactly what will be taking the place of the East 13th Street residence. The city approved demolition permits for the site over the weekend, and demolition will commence once the property is vacated, according to a hospital representative.
