A 94-year-old U.S. Army veteran is criticizing his Staten Island assisted living home for kicking him out and then making a deal to take in immigrants, saying it’s “not fair” that they sent him packing.
Frank Tammaro received less than two months’ notice that he and 53 other seniors would have to move out of Island Shores Residences in March and had to make other living arrangements.
“I felt horrible,” Tammaro, a lifelong New Yorker, told Fox News. “It’s no joke being kicked out of a house.”
He then moved to another facility, but after he fell, he and his daughter Barbara Annunziata decided it would be best for him to move in with her and their children.
It was under their care that the family discovered that Island Shores was being converted into migrant housing and would not reopen as another assisted living facility as they were promised.
“I don’t understand it at all,” Annunziata said. “It’s not fair to anyone.
“These immigrants are getting everything. They’re getting everything and I can’t get anything for [Tammaro]” she said, adding that she has had trouble getting insurance that would allow her to pay for a home health aide.
“Meanwhile, [migrants] get everything. And he has no right to anything.”
Republican leaders in the district have criticized the city and the nonprofit that owns the facility for what they called a “shady deal” to house immigrants.
Frank Tammaro, 94, was given less than two months to move out of Island Shores Residences in March. Fox News Digital The Island Shores Residences on Staten Island is now known as the Midland Beach Migrant Center. Fox News Digital
“New York City has been employing the practice of opening shelters for migrants and placing them in shelters under the cover of darkness,” Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) said at a Sept. 21 press conference. .
“They do not keep the community or elected officials informed. “This has caused a sense of panic among the electorate.”
Homes for the Homeless, the building’s new owners, told Fox News that they intended to sell Island Shores “to focus on its core mission of serving homeless families” and that the preferred buyer “would be another senior operator.”
However, Homes for the Homeless reached an agreement in August with City Hall to move migrants to the facility, which is now known as the Midland Beach Migrant Center.
Tammaro first spoke out against his treatment at a news conference in September, after Homes for the Homeless reached a deal to convert the assisted living facility into an immigrant center. Gabriela Bass
The Department of Social Services (DSS) spokesperson told the Staten Island Advance in September that the former senior living facility would be converted into a migrant shelter for 113 families with private rooms and food services.
The decision led outraged Staten Islanders to protest outside the shelter, with some physically blocking the arrival of an MTA bus carrying asylum seekers.
The group of protesters stopped traffic after intercepting the bus on September 19. A total of 10 people were arrested and nine were cited for disorderly conduct.
A 48-year-old man, identified as Vadim Belyakov, was charged with allegedly assaulting an officer who was attempting to make an arrest.
Mayor Adams called the chaotic demonstration an “ugly display” put on by a very small group of New Yorkers.
Tammaro’s daughter, Barbara Annunziata, said: “These immigrants are getting everything.” Fox News Digital Fifteen immigrant families moved into the former assisted living facility in September. Fox News Digital
But one protester, Sal Monforte, who lives 200 feet from the shelter, insisted to The Post that the demonstration was peaceful, until police arrived and turned the “scene into a riot.”
“They arrested people for no reason. The 10 people who were arrested last night should never have been arrested,” the 59-year-old retired construction worker said.
Tammaro, the Army veteran, agreed that the center’s decision to convert Island Shores into migrant housing “was made behind closed doors.”
At first, he said, residents were told the senior center would reopen under new management.
“We didn’t have a chance to make any attempt to stop them because there wasn’t enough time,” Tammaro said at a news conference in September, as 15 asylum-seeking families moved into the building.
Still, Tammaro, who worked for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, a branch of the military that manages information systems, and served in the United States during the Korean War, said he tried to fight back.
“I said, ‘No, no, no, you’re not going to transfer me,’” he said. “They said, ‘Yes, yes, yes, we are.’”
“I was happy where I was until they kicked me out,” Tammaro explained. “But making the best of a bad situation, that’s what we’re doing.”
He said he mostly feels bad for the other former Island Shores residents, who included seven other veterans.
“I wasn’t in combat,” Tammaro said. “But these guys who went and went into combat, and now they’re all set up there with their lives and everything else, and they’re all distraught, it’s not fair.”
But Annunziata said she remains angry about how her father was treated.
“They are more concerned about immigrants than American citizens,” he said.
Homes for the Homeless declined to comment Thursday.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn