94 Year Old Brooklynite Gets Apartment

Hoorah! The Brooklyn Paper reports that 94 year old Dominick Diomede has found a new home. Diomede was evicted by his Carroll Gardens landlord, because he didn't have a lease - he had been living there for two decades, based on the verbal agreement he had with the previous owner. Now, Diomede will move into one of non-profit Fifth Avenue Committee's subsidized apartments on Warren Street. A Good Samaritan stepped in with $2,000 for another month's rent at Diomede's current Luquer Street apartment when the story broke in The Brooklyn Paper, as there were fears the 94 year old would live in his car; the Samaritan said he wanted Diomede "to keep whatever dignity he can." And the senior received many offers for free moving, so we have a feeling the transition moving from his home of 20 years will be a little easier.

And the Brooklyn Paper's Gersh Kuntzman writes that many people wanted to help out Diomede after the story appeared, but

"there are scores of Dominick Diomedes losing their homes every week, seniors who have lived for decades without leases — and are being thrown out, usually by a landlord who wants more money....So it’s nice that everyone wanted to help Diomede — truly, it was touching — but now that he has his new apartment, let’s not forget that there’s always another Dominick Diomede about to lose his home on your block."

Photograph by Gersh Kuntzman for The Brooklyn Paper