International House NYC Eviction 2020 - For Your 'Safety'

Hi Guys, Here's a petition asking for the resignation of Calvin Sims and Lorraine Pirro in regard to incidents mentioned above: http://chng.it/6mXmvx4Rh2. 312 signatures so far. Here's an Al Jazeera article that talks about the issue, and the petition: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/0.... Response to alumni letter that was sent:

1) The letter says: 'If there was one message we would want you to receive, it is that no resident was forced out of I-House with nowhere to go. We would never allow that to happen.'

The email they sent to us on March 19th 2020 said: 'Second, based on these developments at the House, for the health and safety of our community, we will require all residents of I-House South to depart by Friday, March 27th. For your health and safety, we suggest you leave the House as soon as possible before that date. Unfortunately, there can be no exceptions. In addition, given the interconnectivity between I-House South and North, we are urging residents of I-House North to leave the premises as soon as possible. We are taking this vital step to protect your health and well-being with advice from the CDC'

It was TWO DAYS LATER when I-house added this statement ' In order to maintain an orderly flow, we are encouraging you to depart as soon as possible before the Friday deadline, and we ask that residents try to depart no later than Tuesday, March 24th if at all possible to prevent last minute crowding. Please confirm your departure date with the Admissions Office at [email protected]. International House will continue to assist you, and no one will be left without somewhere to relocate.'

TWO DAYS of panic. They did NOT tell us to leave along with the resource of suggesting ways to assist us. The FIRST way they communicated was to tell us to ONLY LEAVE.

2) 'The letter said: Our staff has consistently provided personalized support. That will continue even now. We have not abandoned them.'

This is a lie. The day someone called me to talk to me, was to confirm my departure date, on Monday the 23rd. No one offered any support to me, or anyone whatsoever. In fact, a resident shared in the group chat yesterday that Lorraine Pirro had called them to 'check in' when the resident had already left I-House.

3) This letter said, under the question: Why can't you isolate the spread through testing and containment? 'We have remained in close contact with the Board of Health and other relevant health authorities at all times.'
This is a lie! A letter from the Manhattan Borough dated March 24th clearly states that 'We believe that moving ahead with the current plan of evicting dozens of students, some of whom are currently in the community by way of student visas, is irresponsible and counterproductive to slowing the spread of the virus.'

4) "We have made a commitment to assist every resident in securing a safer place to go." Lies. I bumped into TWO residents on Tuesday that still had not figured out where next they would go, and I used my own resources- alumni, legal help- to ensure they had somewhere to go.

5) 'We have activated the Emergency Fund, seeded with Alumni and Trustee gifts, and we are ramping up individual grants to those who self-identify with exceptional needs.' What is a lie about this is that people are COMPLETELY UNAWARE. Their email to us said ' If you are suffering financial difficulty, or have a dire situation due to your home country, please let us know (by emailing [email protected]) and we will try our best to assist you.'

This language is not what they are stating. I have so far helped 3 residents email admissions because their confusing language. Residents are UNAWARE of financial assistance, and they are not pushing that knowledge on us.

6) 'It was subsequently determined that the South Building would not be able to support quarantine or adequately contain the risk of exposure. Despite the dedication and creativity of the staff to try to solve the issues, the communal configurations of the South Building would pose more of a risk to residents than requiring them to evacuate.'

Yes, of course this is TRUE. The South building is not a space to keep people. But the other TRUTH is that they sent us an email on March 19th stating 'However, we are convinced that numerous residents and staff have had close contact with this affected individual in recent weeks and as such I-House is now considered an at-risk community.'

The core issue is not if I-House was safe or not. This is clear. The issue is, if they were CONVINCED- why not, mobilize resources to find a way to test all of us? Move us to a different facility? If they were so CONVINCED? Why would they ask us to leave knowing that doing so posed a health risk to the state, community and world?