Highbridge shelter resident's tag to News 12 on Facebook leads to apartment fixes
Keysha Williams says domestic violence forced her and her four children to leave their home in Albany back in May. However, she says conditions were so bad at the shelter, she wondered if her family would have been better off staying.
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A single mother of four who is staying at a shelter in Highbridge had her apartment repaired after tagging News 12 on Facebook.
Keysha Williams says domestic violence forced her and her four children to leave their home in Albany back in May.
However, she says conditions were so bad at the shelter, she wondered if her family would have been better off staying.
"My main job is to protect them, and I can't even protect myself right now," she says.
Since moving in, Williams says they have dealt with everything from mice and roaches to a broken fridge and hot water.
She says the worst thing has been the huge amounts of mold, which she believes has been caused by a broken radiator.
Williams says she's tried to tell people to no avail.
"They don't care, I literally show these people and it's like 'Oh my God.' That's their response. 'Oh my God,' but there's nothing they can do," she says.
As of Friday, Williams was running out of options, having complained to the building, filed 311 complains, tried to get transferred to another shelter or get a voucher to move into housing.
"I feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm a pretty strong individual - I've had to be, being a single mother, and it's like I feel hopeless right now," she says.
After tagging News 12 in a Facebook post, News 12 played it for Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday's edition of "Ask the Mayor." It prompted him to call the conditions "unacceptable."
News 12 then reached out to the Department of Social Services and Samaritan Village, which runs the building.
They say that records show there was no mold when they checked the apartment less than two weeks ago.
A source says it is being fixed, with both the walls being scrubbed and the radiator being repaired.
