Katrina family still in limbo
Parents live in Jamaica but face ACS complaints on toddler neglect
By Ivan Pereira
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| City Councilman Leroy Comrie (third from l.) is still working on helping the Pryor family find a new home. |
A New Orleans family who relocated to Jamaica following Hurricane Katrina has been trying to work out a deal that would get them into a new home, but some of the people who helped them are claiming their struggles were exaggerated.
Stan and Lisa Pryor met with the city Administration of Children’s Services Aug. 12 to try to find a new home after the apartment they were living in was ordered by the city Department of Buildings to be vacated, according to the office of City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), who has been helping the Pryors.
The couple, who have a 3-year-old daughter, claimed they were placed in the basement by the agency after they were bounced around different living spaces after they arrived in Queens following the 2005 hurricane.
“ACS is trying to find them emergency housing. The Pryors do not want to go to a shelter,” said Jamal Wilkerson, a community liaison at Comrie’s office.
The basement, at 118-17 Marsden St., had a low ceiling and a cesspool and required $2,000 in repairs, according to Stan Pryor, 65.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said.
Lisa Pryor, 43, said ACS took her girl, Fatasha, after she was born in November 2005 while they were living in a hotel following the hurricane. Fatasha was returned back to the Pryors several months later after she was hospitalized while with a foster family, according to the Pryors.
But a source close to ACS said the child was removed from the home because Lisa Pryor had severe drug problems and she and her husband were neglecting the baby’s needs.
Although a 2008 Queens Family Court judge ordered ACS help the Pryors find a home after they lived in two Jamaica shelters, the source said the Pryors themselves were the ones who found and chose to live in the basement apartment.
“We’re trying to look out for the situation of the child, but we don’t approve housing,” the source said.
The agency was not the only group that had problems with the Pryors’ story. Members of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Jamaica, where the Pryors lived in a room for two years, have complained Stan Pryor would abuse the church’s generosity and do little to become more independent.
“The church has tried to help that man. He wanted to get a job, but he didn’t want to do anything,” said a church official, who refused to give his name.
The church member said when the Pryors moved out of the church’s room in March 2008, they turned on the sink taps and flooded the building.
“We had confrontations,” said the church official, who said he has also talked to Comrie’s office about his congregation’s dealings with the family.
Stan Pryor denied the allegations his family acted inappropriately while at Resurrection Lutheran Church and said he helped out by doing various chores around the building.
“If I did those things that they said I did, why didn’t they call the police to lock me up?” he asked. “I stayed there and worked there for two years and I never got $5 from them.”
Wilkerson said Comrie’s office is committed to helping place the Pryors in a suitable home to raise their daughter.
“We need to help the child. That is what the councilman is trying to do,” he said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
Stan and Lisa Pryor met with the city Administration of Children’s Services Aug. 12 to try to find a new home after the apartment they were living in was ordered by the city Department of Buildings to be vacated, according to the office of City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), who has been helping the Pryors.
The couple, who have a 3-year-old daughter, claimed they were placed in the basement by the agency after they were bounced around different living spaces after they arrived in Queens following the 2005 hurricane.
“ACS is trying to find them emergency housing. The Pryors do not want to go to a shelter,” said Jamal Wilkerson, a community liaison at Comrie’s office.
The basement, at 118-17 Marsden St., had a low ceiling and a cesspool and required $2,000 in repairs, according to Stan Pryor, 65.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said.
Lisa Pryor, 43, said ACS took her girl, Fatasha, after she was born in November 2005 while they were living in a hotel following the hurricane. Fatasha was returned back to the Pryors several months later after she was hospitalized while with a foster family, according to the Pryors.
But a source close to ACS said the child was removed from the home because Lisa Pryor had severe drug problems and she and her husband were neglecting the baby’s needs.
Although a 2008 Queens Family Court judge ordered ACS help the Pryors find a home after they lived in two Jamaica shelters, the source said the Pryors themselves were the ones who found and chose to live in the basement apartment.
“We’re trying to look out for the situation of the child, but we don’t approve housing,” the source said.
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“The church has tried to help that man. He wanted to get a job, but he didn’t want to do anything,” said a church official, who refused to give his name.
The church member said when the Pryors moved out of the church’s room in March 2008, they turned on the sink taps and flooded the building.
“We had confrontations,” said the church official, who said he has also talked to Comrie’s office about his congregation’s dealings with the family.
Stan Pryor denied the allegations his family acted inappropriately while at Resurrection Lutheran Church and said he helped out by doing various chores around the building.
“If I did those things that they said I did, why didn’t they call the police to lock me up?” he asked. “I stayed there and worked there for two years and I never got $5 from them.”
Wilkerson said Comrie’s office is committed to helping place the Pryors in a suitable home to raise their daughter.
“We need to help the child. That is what the councilman is trying to do,” he said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
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