An Eviction, A Cold Night In A Bad Car, A Syracuse Child’s Death: ‘It’s Breaking My Heart’

[Sugar Cookie]

On Monday morning, Joshua Rolon packed as much as he could fit into his family’s 19-year-old gray Honda Accord. Laundry detergent, some boxes and a stroller for his 1-year-old daughter were jammed into the trunk.

Rolon’s family was being evicted from their North Side apartment. He told the landlord that he, his girlfriend and their daughter were going to a shelter.

But that night and the next, they slept in their car. The result was deadly.

Police found the family huddled together in the front seat of the car Wednesday morning, said Rolon’s half-brother Hector Santos. Rolon and his girlfriend, Delilah Rodriguez, were unconscious. Their daughter, Delilah Rolon, had died

Police suspect the family was sickened by carbon monoxide fumes leaking into the car as it ran to keep the family warm on the cold, early fall night.

Rolon’s family is part of a mushrooming crisis in Syracuse. The city has had among the highest eviction rates in the nation, and this year has had unprecedented levels of family homelessness. Fueled by post-pandemic evictions and an affordable housing shortage, family homelessness spiked 65% this year.

Family shelters run by the Salvation Army and Vera House have been at or past capacity for more than a year. But when the shelters are full, families like Rolon’s are put in hotels and the bill is paid for by Onondaga County. There are also emergency rent assistance programs that will pay back rent for families so they can avoid eviction.

It’s unclear why Rolon’s family was sleeping in their car instead of a shelter or hotel.

Rolon’s landlord, Serafina Pascarella, found out what happened to Rolon and his family from a Syracuse.com reporter.

“It’s breaking my heart,” Pascarella said. “I don’t know what to say.”

She said Rolon hadn’t been paying rent at his apartment since January. Rolon had been renting the apartment at 317 Elm St. on the city’s North Side since 2020. Pascarella knew he had a little girl and she wanted to help the family stay in the apartment, so she kept trying to work with Rolon, she said.

Pascarella said she told Rolon to pay what he could, but he didn’t make any payments, and told her he didn’t have a job.

The court papers show that Rolon owed $1,450, his rent for April, May and June. Pascarella said the total was much more, but she didn’t want to demand back rent from Rolon and his family.

Pascarella, who has been a landlord for more than 30 years, said she told Rolon that she was going to evict him and explained to him how to go to the county Department of Social Services to get emergency housing help.

She said that after they went to eviction court last month, she stayed after and showed him which parts of the paperwork to take to DSS.

Pascarella said that if at any point Rolon had asked her for more time, if he told her he was planning to live in his car with his family, she would have helped.

The last conversation she had with Rolon was Monday morning, during the eviction. She asked him where he was going to go.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m going to a shelter,’ ” Pascarella said. “I wish I could have done more.”

She said she told Rolon she was sorry as he moved the last of his belongings into the family’s car.

That old Honda was the only place the family had, but it was not safe, said Andrew Gleason, the tow truck driver who brought the car to the Syracuse Police Crime Lab.

He said he noticed the car was broken at the catalytic converter when he unloaded it.

“There were straight engine fumes going into the car,” Gleason said.

Gleason said he and the officers started the car in the lab and it was loud.

“I don’t know how they slept,” Gleason said. “It was so loud, like a rocket ship.”

He couldn’t shake the image of the little girl being poisoned by the fumes.

“I have a 2-year-old,” he said “It really hit home to me.”

MSN

 

[cubby]

But yeah the migrants need housing more.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Delilah

 

[Metalfan]

Sigh that is terrible.At least the foreign economic asylum seekers get a free place!

 

[BuffettGirl]

I feel sorry for the landlord. I hope she can get past the huge amount of guilt she clearly feels.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

@BuffettGirl

There really is some other reason this man did not want to go to a shelter.

He could of at the very least sent the woman and child to the shelter.

 

[Ellen Brody]

Sigh that is terrible.At least the foreign economic asylum seekers get a free place!

Yeah, it’s infuriating our veterans are sleeping on the streets and little girls die in shitty cars.Seems like the parents could have done more,I don’t want to judge them too harshly.shelters are notoriously dangerous I don’t blame them for not going to one.Our citizens should be top priority illegals have no right to be on the dole or even be HERE!!