Adele Sarno, the 85-year-old woman who has lived at 187 Grand Street since 1962, has given up the fight against her landlord, the Italian-American Museum. She will be out of the apartment by June 30, the New York Times reports. Despite community support and attempts at intervention from housing rights activists, real estate development has triumphed.
“It took too much out of me,” Sarno said. “That’s his prerogative. He’s the landlord.”
The settlement between Sarno and the museum, reached April 27, allows Sarno to stay in the apartment until June 30 as she looks for a new one-bedroom apartment in Little Italy, where her church and doctors are. If she can’t, she will go live with her daughter in Wisconsin or her granddaughter in Staten Island.
“It’s all right,” Sarno said of being forced out. “I knew this was coming. That’s enough just so that I have enough time to move out the furniture. It’s too much.”
(Photo: Eden, Janine, and Jim)
