Residents at the Prospect Housing Community were told last week they had a month to move out.
Today, they got to meet with Johnstown Housing officials and other a City Leaders about the sudden relocation plan.
We wasn’t allowed inside the building where the meetings were held, but saw how some residents confronted those officials.
“Why do we have to leave our neighborhood? Why do we have to leave our community? I feel safe here. Now you’re going to make me live somewhere that I’m unhappy, not safe,” said one Prospect Community resident.
Tee Preston, Another resident added, “It’s been a lot of anxiety like what am I going to do, where am I going to go, what about my family and what about myself, what about my stuff, what is really going on?”
One by one, Prospect Community residents met with a case worker at the Prospect Community Room Monday to discuss relocation plans – four days after they received notice by mail. It telling them, they have to vacate their units within a month due to structural issues.
“I’ve had a problem in my apartment, but you know what I mean, what can I say, you know, that’s up to maintenance, you know. So, they fixed it and, but they kept moving on,”
“Twenty-five days, twenty-five days so well see,”
Michael Alberts, the Executive Director of the Johnstown Housing Authority was accompanied by other city officials and a member of the NAACP outside the Prospect Community Room where residents stopped to confront them about the situation.
“There are four churches in the neighborhood. Many of these people walk to those churches. Of course, the public transportation that’s here in the neighborhood, the daycare that’s here in the neighborhood, So, it’s more than just what’s on the surface.”