Weeks after Christmas Day fire, this family searches for a place to live

Oumou Cisse's family doesn't know where they'll go next.

After losing their home in a five-alarm Christmas Day fire that destroyed their Elliott Avenue apartment building in Yonkers, Cisse's family has been left to piece their lives back together while juggling school and work without a place to live.

"I've cried all of the tears in my body," Cisse said Wednesday, standing outside the shelter in Mount Vernon where she, her husband and their two daughters, ages 5 and 2, have been staying for about a week. "I don't have any tears to shed anymore."

The Red Cross gave them $500 to stay in a hotel right after the fire — the Red Cross helps with immediate needs in the aftermath of disasters, including emergency funds to get families through the initial few days.

And an anonymous donor paid for Cisse, her husband, Elhadji Diakite, and their two daughters, Diariatu and Dorothy, to continue staying there for a couple weeks. San Andres Episcopal Church, just down the street from their apartment, coordinated the arrangement. The church served as a hub where the displaced families could connect with the Red Cross and pick up donations from the community.

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Cisse and her family were grateful for a place to stay, but knew they had to find a more permanent solution. They went to Westhelp Mount Vernon, a shelter.

Now she and her family face a difficult reality with which those who lose everything in a disaster must contend: Navigating a complicated system to seek help while scrambling to find a new place to live.

Cisse's family is one of many who have lost their homes in fires or to Hurricane Ida in Yonkers. If you've experienced a disaster and have questions about resources that you'd like us to look into, fill out this form.

Further complicating matters is that she and her family are doing so in an area where affordable housing is already hard to come by. They paid $1,430 a month for their old two-bedroom apartment, but are having a difficult time finding another place in their price range.

According to a 2019 report on housing in Westchester County, 28% of Yonkers households spent more than half their income on housing. Another 22% spent more than a third of their income on housing. The same report concluded that to meet the county's demand for affordable housing, 11,703 new units would need to be constructed.

With no family in the area, Cisse and her family have no support system to fall back on. Most of their family are in Mali, where they are from.

Diakite works as an Uber and taxi driver and supports the family, but that support is why they are awaiting formal notice any day now that they don't qualify to remain in the shelter.

Through conversations with a Department of Social Services case manager, Diakite and Cisse realized the system is designed for people with no money, not people with just a little bit more than that. They don't qualify for more permanent housing or the shelter, because of the money they have in a checking account, the case manager told them.

"Then she said, 'OK you have to go spend all of that money and then come back,'" if they wanted to stay, Cisse said.

The limbo where Cisse's family seems to fall – in need but unable to get help – isn't unusual.

"It's not unheard of and it's definitely something we see all the time," said Marlene Zarfes, CEO of Westchester Residential Opportunities, a nonprofit dedicated to accessible and affordable housing. "They make too much, but they don't make enough."

Certain grants have their own requirements, often stipulating recipients make a certain percentage of the area median income.

"A lot of people don't fall into those brackets and it's really difficult for them to find a place to live in Westchester," Zarfes said.

That leaves people stuck – needing help, unable to get it, but they also can't live without it, she said.

Even for people who do qualify for help, the process takes time. It requires a lot of patience with the agencies working through a high volume of people seeking aid, Zarfes said, and that's difficult when you have more immediate needs such as feeding your children or finding a place to stay.

Part of the frustration, Diakite said, is that they've never needed public assistance before.

"This situation just came from nowhere," he said. "Now for the first time, we apply for housing and they're not even, they're not going to give it to us. It's like we feel like it was our fault or something."

In the chaos of losing their entire apartment, Cisse missed some school (she is studying to be a nurse) and her 5-year-old daughter Diariatu missed some school, too, as the family tried to find an apartment and figure out their next move.

"We just want an apartment we can start rebuilding from," Diakite said.

Fire leaves families homeless

Cisse and her family aren't alone in scrambling to find housing in the aftermath of the fire. Although no occupants were injured, the Yonkers Fire Department said the fire displaced eight families.

The building was demolished four days after the fire, according to Christina Gilmartin, director of communications for the city of Yonkers.

Fire Commissioner Anthony Pagano said Thursday the cause of the fire was undetermined. Investigating the cause proved difficult because the building was destroyed, Pagano said.

Cisse was in her kitchen when she saw black smoke coming into the apartment. She grabbed her daughters and got out of the building as she heard other people in the building screaming there was a fire. Neither she nor her daughters had time to put on shoes or coats.

Coming back from the store, Diakite found his family outside the building.

"The hardest thing for a husband or a father is to look at your family and you're hopeless," Diakite said. "There's not much you can do and you look at them suffering."

For Cisse, the little things have added up. Something as simple as wanting lotion and realizing she doesn't have any, or wanting to sit at a table to do her homework and remembering she lost her computer in the fire and doesn't have a table, serve as daily reminders of not having a home, Cisse said.

"It hits you every day," she said.

It's possible they'll end up sleeping in their car, but Cisse worries about her kids, particularly Diariatu, whose asthma is exacerbated by the cold weather.

"We're grateful that we're alive, but now what is the next step?" Cisse said. "We have to rebuild everything."

What's your story?

Have you been displaced from your home as part of a disaster like a flood or a fire? Do you have questions about housing options or financial assistance in your community?

We'd love to hear from you. We're continuing to cover issues of the disaster safety net across New York, particularly in light of heavy flooding following Hurricane Ida and recent fires in New York City.

If you're interested in speaking to a reporter about your story, or you have a question about disaster funding or emergency housing, contact Diana Dombrowski at Ddombrowski@gannett.com or 914-370-9296. You can also fill out the form below. We can't guarantee a response to every submission, but we're interested in your experiences and inquiries.

Eduardo Cuevas contributed to this report.

Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yonkers Christmas Day fire leaves family scrambling for place to live