Evictions look different than this house debris at 925 Wolcott. An eviction of a person, group of people or family looks like all of their stuff outside on the sidewalk. Their vacuum cleaner, washer and dryer maybe, boxes of stuffed animals and clothes. Sometimes these items are soggy and wet after days of sitting outside in the rain.

Soggy stuff on the front lawn and sidewalk is what it looked like when a recent Beacon elementary school student’s family was evicted days before the holidays. Their things were outside for the entire community to see.

The day before their eviction, the student’s playmates asked them at the end of the school day: “Can you play tomorrow?” The student answered: “I don’t know. My mom says that we are moving tomorrow if we can’t find a new place today.” The students accepted the answer at face value, while the parents who heard the student’s answer doubted the precise nature of it. Perhaps the student was parroting an exasperated claim by their parents. Wishfull thinking.

The next day, the student’s family’s things were indeed on the sidewalk, looking like this house debris in the picture above, but in the reverse. The house was in tact, but their stuff looked like debris.

Note: To answer a reader’s question: This story is an example of what an eviction can look like. It is not illustrating the burning of this house by a former tenant on the day of his own eviction hearing. The rest of that story is below.

Note: To answer a reader’s question: it is unknown if the owner of the student’s house and the owner of 925 Wolcott Avenue are the same owner. This story is to illustrate an eviction, and what that looks like from an owner’s house perspective that is standing with their tenant’s personal possessions outside, and an owner’s house that has been destroyed by the tenant that the owner is seeking eviction on.

The Intended Eviction of Brian P. Atkinson

The picture above is a reverse eviction. The tenant of 925 Wolcott Avenue, Brian P. Atkinson, was arrested for arson after setting the house he lived at on fire the day he was due in court for an eviction hearing. This fire endangered many people, required multiple fire departments to control, destroyed one property, and damaged two other properties.

Several locals familiar with the situation said that he turned himself in, which was later confirmed by the City of Beacon Police in an article. The building’s owner, Yeshia Berger, who also owns the multi-unit house across the street at 916 Wolcott Avenue, told A Little Beacon Blog that Brian was caught on camera, removing the camera shortly before the house caught fire. The fire was so hot it almost melted a firetruck and did damage two neighboring houses. A gasoline-sniffing dog was used to investigate the debris. The flames were so so high, they could be seen across the Hudson River in Newburgh.

Brian, it was later learned after the first media reports came out about the fire, was due in Beacon City Court that Tuesday for his eviction hearing. The newspaper, The Highlands Current, had called the Beacon City Courts to acquire information and learned of his court date. When the building owner spoke with A Little Beacon Blog, he stated that the person who set the house on fire was a prior tenant was not living there anymore.

People familiar with Brian’s living habits, including neighbors who could see the property, confirmed that Brian had been on the property during the day and night right up until the fire, collecting trash and maintaining the property. A light would be on at night, indicating he was living inside. Locals say he was a skilled carpenter, and had been “hired” recently by the building owner.

Locals and the Police Report say that the house was under construction, and had been stripped to the studs inside. However, the Police Report says that the house was unoccupied. According to neighbors and locals, Brian was known to be living there. And in fact, may have experienced the power shut off on that Monday.

Midhudson News reported that renovations had begun on the house, but were stopped by the City of Beacon. A Little Beacon Blog has filed a FOIL to gain access to the permit for construction, and the City of Beacon’s stop-work notice, if either exist.

Neighbors have confirmed that construction work had begun on the house to fix the front porch. The City of Beacon’s Building Department nor City Administrator have not responded to questions on this matter. Perhaps they will divulge during a public City Council Meeting.

According to information obtained by The Highlands Current, Brian had been served with an eviction hearing on December 21, 2022, citing unpaid rent. His hearing was set for Tuesday, January 3, 2023. Some locals indicated that he was in agreement with the building owner to provide services for the house in trade for living there. It is not clear then, how soon after he completed his last task, that an eviction notice was given to him.

The Torching of 925 Wolcott Avenue As Metaphor For Housing Crisis

While torching anything is wrong and not justified, the igniting of 925 Wolcott Avenue has come to represent a literal expressing of “burn it all down” when people reach the end of what they see as a broken system.

This fire has lit up the Beacon community to use this situation as illustrative of the housing crisis Beacon is experiencing - and has been experiencing since its settlement, as different people move in over the decades. But now, is hitting different classes and races, so different voices are speaking out.

Questions that arise include:

Why are people’s names not included on property companies, making it hard to find the people who own a building?
Does the City of Beacon regularly inspect the interior of rental units to make sure they are safe and humane? Movement is being made on short term rentals for Airbnb, but what about long term rentals? The long-term rental market is a quieter market who usually fears the landlord and does not make complaints. Unlike Airbnb, where there is a public platform for renters to write reviews about their rental units, and owners can write reviews about renters.
The City of Beacon may have stopped work on outside construction because it did not conform to laws, but were the people living inside OK this day, and years prior?
How far do people want local and state government to go, because there is already overreach? How is this all to work? With so many already existing laws that leave some people invisible?

Eviction Hearing and Tenants Rights

After much protest and arguments by residents of the City of Beacon in 2021, the City did enter into an agreement with Legal Services of the Hudson Valley to assist people facing eviction. Most people might not know about it, if they missed a single news report about it.

The information for how to use the tool designed for tenets rights is buried in the City’s website in a blog post dated March 2022 (as opposed to being front and center on the City’s home page, since losing one’s home is such a traumatic event).

You can find those legal assistance services here, which includes a direct phone line for Beacon residents. People are encouraged to call, even if they fear their landlord and assume they don’t have much time to find a new place.

It is unknown if any of the tenants of 925 Wolcott Avenue who were told to leave their boarding rooms by the landlord prior to the fire pursued legal help. The benefits of Legal Services of the Hudson Valley include attempting to connect someone with rent arrears assistance. However, some tenant/landlord agreements or leases are verbal or do not meet the standards of what a rent arrears assistance program requires, so some people do not even try to get this help.

If a new building owner wants everyone out, there are ways to do this, including:

Paying people to help them move.
Giving them time to move once notice is given.
Helping them find a new location.

Buying property is tricky. Once new financing is in place, often rent has to go up to sustain it, and repairs need to be done to the property. Math. Additionally, tact.