Alfredo Rosario is a homeless man who says he is back on the street in the East Village after a safe haven lacked wheelchair accommodations.
Photo by Dean Moses
Alfredo Rosario sat at a bus stop on Avenue A, between 5th and 6th Streets, in the East Village on June 13 surrounded by few of his meager belongings. The world marched by him without so much as a second glance.
The 57-year-old says he is barely able to walk and gets around with the use of a wheelchair after a car driver hit him on Christmas Day 2021. The crash left him missing part of his right foot and riddled with severe hip pain — so when volunteer homeless outreach workers promised him a place to stay at Rendall Presbyterian Church, located at 137th Street in Harlem, on June 8, he said he relished the opportunity.
But the location proved to be difficult when it came to his limited accessibility.
“It had steep stairs” in the church baseman, Rosario said. “There was no elevator, there was no place for me to use a wheelchair, even to use the bathroom I had to take stairs,” Rosario said.
When Rosario explained his difficulty with stairs, those at the church stated they did not have the ability to help him transfer to another site.
“They said you are here now and will have to speak to your caseworker,” Rosario added.
Rendall Church, according to the Presbyterian Mission Agency, has worked in partnership with the city’s Department of Homeless Services since 2016 providing homeless New Yorkers with a place to stay overnight from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. There, the homeless are fed dinner and breakfast, take hot showers, sleep in clean beds and receive small items of clothing and toiletries.
Rosario stayed less than a day at Rendall Church, where he says 12 other people were staying at the time. While Rosario was appreciative of the help outreach workers offered him, he wished he had been taken to a location that could accommodate his disability.
Instead, Rosario left the church —…
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