“The reason we didn’t pay them was because they don’t want to fix the water leak in the bathroom from the roof, and they don’t want to fix the garage,” Kifle said.

“We can’t even teach—it was very unsafe,” Gebrtensae said, referring to the damage from the water leaks that made the floor unsuitable for dancing.

By Maggie Astor

Published Wednesday 18 November 2009

Since the summer, Manhattanville’s Eritrean community has found itself without a home.

Harlem, which encompasses Manhattanville, remains one of the most diverse neighborhoods in New York City, where groups ranging from African Americans to Hispanics to Europeans have all staked out niches. Yet residents from Eritrea, an African country bordered by the Sudan, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, remain without a central meeting place.

The Eritrean Social Club—which since 1985 had been located just east of Broadway in a University-owned building on 125th Street—was evicted in July for nonpayment of rent after a final extension from a June eviction date. Now, while leaders continue to look for new sites, they have found nothing suitable, and the club is “not operating,” said club secretary Berhe Kifle, who also works in the finance and administration department of the Permanent Mission of Eritrea to the United Nations.

“Especially in that area, it is very, very expensive,” Kifle said, adding that the club had considered locations in the Bronx, but members rejected these locations because they were not easily accessible by subway or bus.

Kifle estimated the club has 80 active members and between 400 and 500 nominal ones.

“We gathered over there to meet Eritreans … and then we have a language school for the ladies that are not speaking English,” Kifle said. “We have also a school for the children to learn our language, and we have different organizations, women’s organizations, that meet over there. We were celebrating all the national holidays.”

“Our main problem is the children,” member Yohanes Gebrtensae said. “They cannot even see each other. We’ve been here half of our life, and when someone comes in and forces you to leave, it’s hard. People ask what happened—we have no answer for them.”

Kifle said the rent issue arose when Columbia officials did not respond to requests to repair the space. Daniel Held, director of communications for Columbia Facilities, declined to comment, citing the University’s policy of not discussing relations with tenants.

“The reason we didn’t pay them was because they don’t want to fix the water leak in the bathroom from the roof, and they don’t want to fix the garage,” Kifle said.

“We can’t even teach—it was very unsafe,” Gebrtensae said, referring to the damage from the water leaks that made the floor unsuitable for dancing.

At first, Kifle said, the club dealt with the leaks. “We are a lot of handy people and we are fixing it,” he said. But the leaks eventually caused extensive damage. “All these things we explained to them [Columbia].”

For the past four to five years, he said, the club had been operating with no long-term lease, only a month-to-month one.

The club’s lawyer, Simon Medhin, was unavailable for comment.

columbiaspectator.com