Apartment problem is complex

Ana Maria Mora earns about $1,000 a month cleaning

houses, so she feels lucky to have an apartment in Farmingdale - despite

sharing it with rats.

But the apartment complex at 150 Secatogue Ave. that Mora and about 150

other people call home may not be standing much longer. Village officials, who

have declared the zone a "blighted area," are resurrecting a major

redevelopment plan for a six-acre tract that has become Farmingdale's Little

Latin America.

The officials say the redevelopment, which has been under discussion for

eight years, aimed to improve a rundown area. But Mora and other residents are

worried that if the plan is approved, they will have no place to go.

"I think it's horrendous," said Cristina Ruiz Diaz of the Casa Comunal, a

"Community House" run by Latino and Anglo professionals who are helping the

residents. "You're specifically getting rid of an area that's culturally

diverse."

However, Mayor George Graf said the village "is cleaning up Main Street."

He also dismissed the anti-Latino allegations."There are Hispanics living on

virtually every block in Farmingdale."

Village Attorney Greg Carman called the anti-Latino allegations "baloney"

and said the 65-year-old building is dilapidated and must be replaced. "It's

like having an old car," he said. "When it has 150,000 miles, it's going to

start to show its age."

He said that while no residents would be removed for at least a year,

Commack-based Fairfield Properties has signed a contract with the current owner

giving it the option to buy the property. The contract expires within a few

months, and Carman said he expects Fairfield to make a formal presentation to

the village before then. Fairfield did not return calls seeking comment.

Carman said that at a recent meeting with the company he "was able to

convey the board is very desirous of having that property revitalized and would

be very happy to entertain a proposal from Fairfield." Referring to the

redevelopment plan, he added, "We intend to put it on the front burner."

Fairfield's proposal could fit into the redevelopment plan by either

refurbishing or demolishing the building, he said, adding the village was not

ruling out affordable housing for the site. But Carlos Canales of the

Hempstead-based Workplace Project, which is helping the residents, said the

village board recently discussed plans for upscale apartments.

Carman and Graf said they had no plan to relocate the Latino residents but

would do their best to assist them.

The redevelopment area is bounded by Secatogue Avenue, South Front Street,

Elizabeth Street and Conklin Street. It is home to a Latino deli, a pizza

parlor, a gas station, two apartment buildings, a half-dozen multifamily homes

and the Casa Comunal community center.

For decades 150 Secatogue was inhabited by Anglos, but Latinos started

moving in in the mid-1980s, and by the late 1990s were almost the only ethnic

group.

Residents are fighting to stay there, and with the help of the Casa

Comunal, the Workplace Project and the Hofstra Law School housing clinic they

sued the owner, John Tosini, to force him to repair the building.

Neither Tosini nor his attorney, Stanley Somer, returned calls.

Tosini has been issued hundreds of summonses over the past five years for

vermin, mold, exposed electrical wires, broken radiators, leaking ceilings,

cracked walls and other building code violations, village officials said.

Residents were removed twice last year in the middle of the night because of a

fire and water leaking onto a basement electrical cable.

Mora, 40, a native of Mexico, said that besides the rats, her bedroom

ceiling leaks and there's a large crack on a wall.

Tenant Ana Maria Cabrera, 23, earns $8 an hour packing fruit at a food

market, and said that despite the building's problems, she doesn't know where

she would go if it were demolished.

"The only thing that the building needs is to be repaired, not knocked

down," the Honduran immigrant said in Spanish. "Where are we going to live?

It's going to be more expensive, and we can't pay it."