NYCHA faces pressure to relocate paralyzed resident: ‘Fighting since 2015'
NEW YORK (PIX11) – For 34-year-old Nyree Stevens and the home health aides who help her carry her paralyzed body multiple times a day, every single day is an exercise in patience – and delicate maneuvering she can get around her public housing unit in the Bronx. 'For me to get in and out of my wheelchair, i'm not able to use my equipment because the room is too small, and also for the bathroom, in order to get in and out the shower, i have to be lifted over a piece that's in front of the shower. And I told them about it. Because I could either tip out the chair from them lifting me up, instead of me having a roll-in shower,' Stevens said.
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Home health aide Dee Oldacre also considers herself Nyree's dear friend. 'It's a lot of work. The space is very limited, so it's a struggle,' said Old Acre. Nyree did not choose this life. 'In 2009, I was the victim of gun violence,' said Stevens. Her paralysis, from the shoulders down, is the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was shot in the neck by a stray bullet as she left a party on Christmas Day in 2009. These days, Nyree's patience is matched only by her persistence as she continues to plead with her landlord, the New York City Housing Authority, to move her into a more accessible unit. I've asked them, and the ones that they showed me are kind of the same,' said Tyree. While she waits, Nyree creates.
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In fact, Nyree is a prolific artist who paints by mouth. After we left Nyree's apartment, we reached out to NYCHA. An agency spokesperson tells us, 'NYCHA staff are in touch with the resident and are working to address concerns and discussing the possibility of relocating to a 504 accessible unit.' Stevens is hoping NYCHA can deliver. 'I've been asking for this for so long. I've been fighting with NYCHA since, like, 2015,' said Stevens.
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