Jill Porter: Family facing eviction - again

THE PRESTON family has lived at 1623 Butler St. for five years, ever since the city relocated them when their previous house collapsed.

"They gave me the house for a dollar," Frances Preston said, sitting at the dining-room table with some of the 10 other family members who live with her in the six-bedroom rowhouse.

According to extensive news coverage at the time, former Mayor John Street took pity on the family and intervened to rescue them from homelessness.

But now they're facing it all over again. Because Preston, recently received a certified letter from the Redevelopment Authority notifying her she was being evicted, effective Dec. 31.

It said the lease was not being renewed. But she's never paid rent and said she was only given a temporary lease when she moved in until the deed was transferred.

Apparently, it never was.

"I don't have anywhere to go," said Preston, tears streaming down her face. RDA chief Terry Gillen said the family has been living in the house illegally.

"No one sold them the house. No one gave it to them," Gillen said.

"They've been staying in a house they don't own for five years."

The family is being put out as part of the new administration's effort to correct mistakes and oversights committed at the RDA by previous administrations, she said. Contrary to published reports, Gillen said there's no record of Street paying the RDA for the Preston family to be relocated.

"There's a history of things being done irregularly before we got here. So in some cases, we have to go back and undo them and do them the right way," she said.

I like Terry Gillen. But if she thinks dumping 11 people, including six young children, in the street is the "right way" to correct a previous mistake, she's painfully mistaken.
 
On June 20, 2003, the Preston family escaped their house on Nicholas Street, near 20th, moments before it collapsed into a pile of rubble.

They lost everything.

"My kids are in therapy because they were there when the house fell," said Tameka Preston, 29. She and her four children live with Frances, her grandmother, along with five other family members.

"They wouldn't even talk about it or open up," she said.

The collapse was attributed at the time to excessive rainfall that weakened the foundation. Seventeen other buildings in the city collapsed around that time. Ironically, the Prestons' house was slated to be taken by the city that year through eminent domain.

According to Daily News reports, Street decided to act as if the city had already appropriated the property, and compensate the family so they could move into another home.

"We're going to take care of them," John Street was quoted as saying.

According to an Aug. 29, 2003, Daily News story, "Redevelopment Authority officials said they felt morally obligated to help the family . . . "

The city paid $30,000 and the RDA relocated the Prestons to Butler Street, the story said. And that, the jubilant family thought, was that.

Early on, Preston said she tried repeatedly to get the RDA to give her the deed to the property, but was given "the run-around."

According to city records, the RDA is still the official owner of the house.

Gillen said it's unclear why Street "instructed the RDA to give them a house."

"It was highly irregular for the city to give anyone a house, because we don't do that. It may be that we're not permitted to do that."

Street was unavailable for comment yesterday. Gillen said RDA officials will meet today to discuss the Prestons' situation.

"We're not going to take drastic action until we figure out what their legal rights are and our legal rights are," she said.

If that's the case, why send the letter? Why not resolve the situation before terrorizing a household of 11 with an eviction notice?

I appreciate the RDA's intention to make sure everything is - and has been - done legally and properly in the past.

But to revisit a gesture of compassion by a former administration is an act of bureaucratic heartlessness.

If Mayor Street was remiss in adhering to legal requirements in transferring the property, why should the Prestons pay the consequences?

Gillen implied the Prestons might not be good tenants and don't properly maintain the property.

She urged me to talk with the neighbors "about what they think about this family."

I urge Gillen to talk with the six youngsters who live in the house.

"They're finally stable," Tameka Preston said of the children traumatized by the house collapse.

"They're in school. They're in after-school programs.

"I don't know what to tell them." *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/porter