NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Dozens of Yorkshire Apartments tenants on 9th street in Niagara Falls living without water and have nowhere to turn for help.
"Well the place got condemned a day after a fire happened at the building over there and the next day they came back to condemn it and less than a week after that they shut the water off without notifying us they were going to do that," says Mark Frazon, a Yorkshire tenant.
Yorkshire tenants said they have no where to go, so they have to live without a fundamental resource like water, which adds more stress.
"It's really really sad you got elderly people out here you got handicap out here," says Coreless Stewart, a Yorkshire tenant. "You got children out here and I can't even have my grandkids visit me because of the way that it is. It's really hard to get help and it's really sad."
Several Yorkshire tenants like Stewart have to purchase gallons of water to get by.
7 News reporter Yoselin Person called the building owner, Ronald Baudilio Perez, who tenants say is based Downstate in Yonkers, but Perez didn't respond.
"It's radio silence with the guy. I tried texting him," says Yorkshire tenant Frazon. "All I know is the day after the fire, the person in charge that works for him tried to collect rent money."
7 News reporter Yoselin Person called the Niagara Falls Water Board, but no one returned the call.
A spokesperson for the City of Niagara Falls tells me the Yorkshire Apartments have been condemned since March 23rd, and any tenant still living there is trespassing.
"If they were served with a notice to leave, and they failed to leave, potentially they can be removed from the property, and they could see criminal charges for trespass," Altschiler said.
But the tenants say they have nowhere else to go.
"We had no heat all winter long. There are bugs in here, and we're living without water now. We shouldn't have to go through that," says Gary Zimmerman, a Yorkshire tenant. "Now I'm forced out of here because the city shut the water off, and we have to find a place, but we have no help to find a place."
"Sometimes those agencies may be able to provide them with resources to relocate. Sometimes they may even be able to provide them with financial assistance for relocation. They can then sue the landlord in small claims court to recover any costs incurred for that need to relocate as an emergency," Altchiler said.
But tenants said it's not that easy.
"They're making it hard. Social service, everybody. They're making it hard for anybody to get some help. This is an emergency," Stewart said.
"I have no where to go. I've been putting applications in. It's hard to put applications in to be approved. I went to social services. They're helping me the best they can," Leonard Ingram, a Yorkshire tenant, said.
7 News will continue to try to connect with the owner Ronald Baudilio Perez and get answers for these tenants.
"Niagara Falls, I don't know where it went too, but it needs to come back," says Stewart. "This town is like a ghost, and it's really sad."
"We need help. We need help out here. Please somebody help us," Zimmerman said.
