Sierra Zamarripa, the owner of Lovewild Design, 136 Avenue C between Eighth Street and Ninth Street, is collecting donations for a longtime resident who came home after being hospitalized with COVID-19 only to find new locks on the door to a now-empty apartment.
Here's more via Sierra:
I am reaching out in hopes of finding support for our neighbor Ryo.
A few months ago Ryo was taken away by ambulance ... some weeks after that a crew was in the hallway cleaning out his apartment and we thought he had died. In fact, a friend of his set up a memorial to him in front of his building at 133 Avenue D asking if anyone knew what had happened to him.
Yesterday Ryo returned home after hospitalization and months of COVID rehabilitation. He arrived to the building to find his locks changed and his apartment emptied out except for his piano and tortoise, who was left alone for months.
Ryo had worked throughout the pandemic as a restaurant worker. He has no shoes, no toothbrush, no documents or ID, no passport, no fridge or stove.
He needs assistance to get his life back and move forward.If you are able to contribute non-monetary donations, we'll be collecting donations at Lovewild Design. We’re open 12-6 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday.
He's medium build, wears men's 9.5/10 shoes wide, 38 waist and cannot take in perishable food yet until building management installs a fridge.
Here's a spreadsheet on what has been donated.
There's also a GoFundMe now at this link.
Ryo lives at 133 Avenue D between Ninth Street and 10th Street in a building said to partially owned by former Yankee Alex Rodriguez. Ryo did stay in the apartment last night thanks to a donated mattress. It's unclear at the moment if he will be able to stay there moving forward.
Updated 8:30 p.m.
Page Six has more on the story, including that Barbara Corcoran is also an owner of the building.
A rep for Corcoran defended their actions, saying they "made every effort to locate the Resident including calling local hospitals and contacting Adult Protective Services.""After APS was alerted to the situation, an APS caseworker was assigned to the Resident," the rep, Mitchell Kossoff, said. "Despite the effort of the APS caseworker and this office, the Resident could not be located and the apartment was cleaned by a company that specialized in bio clean-up services on Feb. 17, 2021. in conformity with all governing regulations."
Gothamist has a report here.
