Help is still needed in the Bronx for nearly 300 people who lost their homes in a fire at an apartment building on Wallace Avenue in Allerton.
It's been three weeks since the Jan. 10 fire tore through six-story building, forcing hundreds of people out of their homes in the middle of the night. Many of those tenants forced out have struggled to secure permanent housing.
That includes Nicolet Seymour. After a hotel stay in Harlem courtesy of the American Red Cross, she said her family, which includes her daughter, parents and two dogs, are on the move again.
"You know how people say day by day, for us it’s minute by minute," Seymour said Friday. "I’ve been wrestling, asking god how can I tell my daughter what happened, she’s [2 years old] going on 3, to make her understand the only home she’s known is not there anymore."
Seymour's next move is to a hotel back in the Bronx through the city's Housing Preservation & Development, which says it is working with tenants who have registered with them for available emergency housing and relocation services.
"We’re in a crunch right now trying to find a place to live, probably double the rent, triple the rent, whatever just to keep our family together," Seymour said.
Through a spokesperson, Parkash Management said it's doing their best to transfer families into apartments at other properties they own in the borough. Seymour, however, said she was not contacted.
Help has also come from their Bronx community, in the form of countless donations. At least 100 bags of goods were donated over the past several weeks and are being made available to the fire victims at a business on White Plains Road this weekend.
Clothes, shoes, toiletries and more have been sorted and stacked by volunteers. The distribution effort will continue Saturday through 7 p.m.
"The community stayed strong and us coming together that means so much, that’s why it’s so hard to leave from our neighborhood," Seymour added.
