By: Jared Evan
A nonprofit that specializes in homeless shelters & senior citizens living centers known as “Homes for the Homeless” plans on selling a 15 story West 49th Street apartment complex and all of the senior residents will have to find another home, The NY Post reported.
The Riverview Senior Independent Living offers elders a $4000 a month apartment where the building covers 3 meals a day and utilities to the tenants.
“I am writing to inform you that Riverview’s owner plans to sell the building and, as a result, Riverview Senior Independent Living will be closing…. I am communicating with you at this juncture to ensure you have sufficient time to make all necessary arrangements, while I do not have any firm date for the closure or the sale, I anticipate it will be sometime in the first few months of 2020”, a coldly written letter that was given to the tenants read, the NY Post reported
Homes for the Homeless also operates a housing complex for seniors on Staten Island, as well as three homeless shelters, two in the Bronx and one in Queens. The non-profit is run by Jewish American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Leonard Stern.
Stern has a net worth of around 4.8 billion, according to Forbes.
Stern initially inherited his wealth from his father. He gradually purchased his brother’s and sister’s share of the family business, Hartz Mountain, and by the early 1960s, exercised absolute control of Hartz Mountain Corporation (HMC). Hartz Mountain Corporation then began to capture the pet supply market that catered to both dog and cat owners and parakeet and canary owners, according to research from author Stacey Patton. By 1984, Hartz Mountain Corporation (HMC) controlled 75% to 90% of the U.S. market for most U.S. pet supply goods.
The pet supply side of Hartz was sold in 2000, today Hartz Mountain Industries (HMI) is a private family-owned and -operated company known for its real estate holdings
According to the unsigned cover article, “Dynasty In Distress” in the February 9, 2004 issue of Business Week, Stern was “intensely engaged” as a board member of Rite Aid in the mid-to-late ’90s when the drugstore chain admitted to overstating net income by $1 billion over two years. There were several class actions lawsuits brought against Stern by shareholders.
They wanna make us homeless,” said Muriel Fisher, 86, a tenant at the Riverview Senior Independent Center in Hell’s Kitchen, to the NY Post
“I don’t have my free will,” Fisher added.
She and other residents were stunned when they received a letter announcing that “Homes for the Homeless’” plans to sell the 15-story building on West 49th Street near Tenth Avenue — and that they had to go.
“I thought this was my last stop,” said former civil rights lawyer Lottie Raukx, 94, who moved from the Bronx to Riverview in October of last year, the Post reported.
Another resident is a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor who functions with the help of a home attendant, the NY Post discovered.
