Stephen Mortley of Brooklyn says he is jumping through hoops to make repairs to his own home
NEW YORK - A Brooklyn man says the owners of a community garden next door to his home are making him jump through hoops to make necessary repairs to protect his property.
The house at 976 Greene Ave. was bought by Stephen Mortley's mother, Hestina, more than 50 years ago. It's his childhood home, and the place he inherited when she passed away.
"My grandmother lived here, my mother lived here, my cousins are here," he said.
Right next door is a green oasis where flowers and vegetables grow next to a chicken coop cared for by local residents. It is called the Garden of Angels, a community space founded in the 1980s.
Mortley said his mom was very fond of the garden and was one of the few people who helped to create it when the lot next door was just a dumping site, more than 40 years ago.
But he says the cracks in the century-old wall and foundation are causing water from the garden side of his home to seep into his basement, rusting his pipes and destroying his home from the inside. It's a problem he first noticed five years ago. That's when he started asking the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust, which manages this and dozens of other community gardens, to allow his workers access to seal his wall.
"I just need two and a half feet to the west. Let me go in there and point the bricks, put the sealer on there, then put the tar, then we'll put the cement. I said, I can have it done in four days," Mortley said.
He showed some of his back-and-forth interactions with the nonprofit, asking BQLT leaders to visit and see the damage for themselves -- conversations he said led nowhere for weeks, then months, then years.
"I'm not getting any fairness. I just want to take care of my property. It's like I'm begging you to take care of my things," Mortley said.
Once CBS New York reached out to BQLT, a spokesperson for the trust said safety in the garden is their top priority, but want to get this project moving.
A statement reads in part: "BQLT plans to work with an independent engineer to perform a study of how the proposed excavation will impact the garden, and to determine what measures need to be taken to ensure that the space remains safe."
Mortley said with every day that passes, the cost of the project grows, and so do his worries about his own safety.
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