Sewage flood at NYCHA complex shuts East Village residents out of community center for months

The New York City Housing Authority failed to act on perennial maintenance problems at a community center in the East Village, leading to a foul sewage flood that for two months has shut hundreds of children and families out of after-school and other programming at the complex.

The Campos Plaza Community Center at 611 E. 13th St. is a neighborhood hub for young people to do homework and recreational activities, as well as attend classes and events for adults and seniors. It’s one of roughly 100 programs in NYCHA buildings called “Cornerstones,” a vital component of the city’s vast network of free after-school programs because of its unusual hours that stretch into the night.

But several small floods and pleas for service went unresolved by the city — until sewage water burst through two floor drains in February and flooded the main hallway, according to inspection records, correspondence, and photos and videos reviewed by The News. From there, feces and toilet paper floated around the building, with few signs of abating for almost a week.

“I put NYCHA on notice, because it’s not fair to this community or the kids in this community,” said DeReese Huff, president of the Campos Plaza I Tenants Association. “It’s not fair to the parents who have to call out of work, can’t pay their bills or buy food because they can’t go to work.”

A representative for the University Settlement, the local organization that operates the facility, told The News that NYCHA scaled back monthly preventative maintenance to four times per year that left the center vulnerable to disrepair.

“We end up just being at the mercy for whenever NYCHA seems it’s a priority to help us out,” said Angel Sacarello, who leads the nonprofit’s Cornerstone programs.

The sewage water contaminated books and laptops, art and sports supplies, and cooking equipment, and the center had to throw away its wood furniture. The organization reported spending $40,000 so far on just the repairs, cleanup including mold remediation, and air-quality assessments, which the site failed last week.

“Not a single person from [the city] has offered air testing,” said Sacarello. “They would’ve let us go back in there with kids, and no one would’ve known.”

NYCHA attributed conditions at Campos Plaza and buildings across the city to decades of federal disinvestment and insufficient funding for broad and long-term improvements, citing capital needs that amount to $40 billion.

Officials did not share how often they did maintenance or if they would reimburse the repairs, but said they fixed toilets, drain caps and flooding in a closet, and committed to an action plan to prevent issues with the pipes. They added that their mold inspection procedures are based on Department of Labor standards and did not require air sampling.

NYCHA signaled it would also install a new gym floor at the Cornerstone, though funding for the project has yet to be identified.

The situation has caught the attention of local and state lawmakers, including Councilwoman Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), who called NYCHA’s “refusal” to fix the issues that plague Campos Plaza “unacceptable.”

“The residents of Campos Plaza, my colleagues and I have advocated for NYCHA to find a permanent solution to the flooding and sewage backflows, and they need to be taking swift action to restore this center,” said Rivera. “Community programs like this one make our city safer and stronger.”

As the Campos Community Center recovers, its regular programming has been on pause or temporarily relocated to several sites, relying on the weather for outdoor activities or the generosity of neighbors to provide space, according to staffers. That’s left families scrambling for child care and teens without recreational activities that keep them occupied.

Some parents, including Sharon Hunter, who both works at the front desk at the center and sends her 7-year-old son to the program, told The News she had to pay for a sitter, while others had to give up their paychecks to watch their children.

“There was just a stench, after all the cleaning, of feces in the air,” said Hunter. “Of course I wasn’t going to allow my child, or anybody else’s child, to go in there. It’s their health.”

Mark Zustovich, a spokesman for the Department of Youth and Community Development that oversees the Cornerstone program apart from infrastructure, said they are working with NYCHA to identify and address facility issues “as quickly as possible.” The agency also helped with temporary relocations to neighboring school buildings to limit the disruption, which is anticipated through the end of June.

Still, the number of children and teens participating in a few of the programs operating on a temporary basis has dwindled dramatically at non-NYCHA sites.

Sacarello, the director, was also concerned that the temporary closure could have a lasting impact on center staff’s relationships with teens, and whether they return when the site reopens. That could hinder the Adams administration’s plans to expand after-school, weekend and summer initiatives like the Cornerstone program to help keep young people safe.

Shooting victims under age 18 accounted for 10% of gun violence victims over the last year, according to NYPD data shared Friday.

“When these programs are not here, all of these folks are left out in the streets,” said Sacarello. “There’s this talk that we need to add programs to keep teens safe, out of trouble. But you can’t operate the programs you have right now?”

“Consistency is key. It’s based off trust, especially with our teens,” he said. “If they don’t have any kind of trust that the space is going to be there for them, that takes months — years — to build that back.”

Residents of Campos Plaza and University Settlement employees stressed that the community center offers more than after-school programs and recreational activities for children and teens.

Christine Bookin, another tenant leader on the opposite side of the complex, Campos Plaza II, said she has not been able to host a meeting in two months without a space. The tenants were interested in starting adult education and health classes, but she added those plans were put on hold because of the sewage floods.

“This has been an ongoing problem,” said Bookin. “They keep giving us band-aids and hope that it’s fixed, but it’s not. And now it’s come to this point, where everything is just destroyed.”

The operators at University Settlement also work with local partners to provide mental health and legal services, as well as adult literacy and high school equivalency classes. The center is an early voting site, and during the pandemic, staffers stepped up to provide food to the tenants.

“This has been a hub in so many ways,” said Sacarello, “and all of that stopped because one person didn’t believe us when we said you have to clean the pipes.”