Molly Mungroo is not a homebody.
“I’m not going to stay in this house and take care of these four walls,” she said. “I'm not going to say, 'I'm old, I'm not going anywhere.' I will not do that. I'm independent.”
Ms. Mungroo, 71, volunteers at a food bank, goes to church and regularly walks in her neighborhood. She loves going out and staying active.
But when she's home, her apartment – located in the Bronx neighborhood of Mount Hope – is her sanctuary.
“Everything is big. I love it. It’s beautiful,” she said. “I set it up, I cleaned it up nicely.”
Ms. Mungroo pays $179 a month for a one-bedroom apartment subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a program designed to provide affordable housing with social services for low-income seniors. Residents pay 30 percent of their income for rent, and HUD covers the rest.
To qualify for the program, at least one member of a household must be 62 years of age or older and the total household income must be below 50 percent of the regional median income, which in New York City is about $70,000 for a family of three (approximately $54,000 U.S. dollar). for a person). Applicants apply for individual buildings and may be on a waiting list for years before securing housing.
About 270 people are on the waiting list for Ms Mungroo's building, which currently houses 136 tenants. She said she waited at least three years for a spot after applying for multiple buildings and moved there in 2019.
Your apartment is designed to be wheelchair accessible, with wide door frames and spacious rooms. Ms. Mungroo likes to keep her surfaces and her belongings clean. Neatly folded clothes and linens are stacked in her closets. She makes sure there is always a vase of flowers on her table.
“It’s a luxury,” she said. “When my friends come over, they say, 'Oh my God, Molly, this place is like a hotel.'”
She has hung groups of handwritten index cards with Bible verses on the walls of each room. One corner of her living room is what she calls her prayer corner, where she reads the Bible – sometimes starting as early as 3 a.m. when she wakes up.
“This Bible is my life,” she said. She has memorized a few psalms that she recites to herself when she can't sleep.
$179 | Mount Hope, the Bronx
Molly Mungroo, 71
Profession: Retired
On the topic of sewing: Ms. Mungroo has a sewing machine in the corner of her living room and uses it to make her own clothes. “Most of my clothes are children’s sizes,” she said. Due to the apartment's wheelchair-accessible design, there are no closets or cabinets under the kitchen countertops, so Ms. Mungroo sewed fabric curtains to hide what she stores underneath.
For neighborhood recognition: Ms. Mungroo worked at a now-defunct check cashing business in Hunts Point for about two decades. First she worked at the counter and then became manager. “I used to run this place,” she said. “Everyone thought I was the owner. I went out on the street and people said, 'Boss, boss! Hello boss!'”
The Bronx feels like home to Ms. Mungroo, who moved to the United States from Trinidad in the mid-1980s. She first lived in Los Angeles and then moved to New York City after a divorce. Her sister and two nieces also live nearby and she sees them regularly.
Ms. Mungroo's adult son and three grandchildren live in Texas, where she also lived for about three years. But she soon became bored and returned to New York, where she feels much freer.
“I just take the bus when I have nothing to do. I walk and walk around. “I walk a lot,” she said. “You can go anywhere, by bus or train, but if you don’t have a car in Texas, you can’t go anywhere.”
She still travels to the Lone Star State for at least a month every year. She has her own room in her son's house. But she's looking forward to getting back into the rhythm of her life in the city.
Staff at Ms. Mungroo's building, run by the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, organize activities for residents, such as bingo and domino games, as well as parties for Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day. Most of her neighbors speak Spanish and Ms. Mungroo greets them with the few words she has learned.
One person she checks in with regularly — and sometimes cooks for — is Karina Hernandez, a service coordinator in the building who helps residents with their benefits, such as SNAP and Medicaid. She helped Ms Mungroo secure these benefits when she discovered her identity had been stolen.
“We had to contact the IRS. I had to call Social Security, the station for her. We got a lot of people involved,” Ms. Hernandez said.
Ms. Mungroo appreciated the effort.
“She helped me a lot. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what I would have done,” she said.
She also gives back and spends three days a week at a nearby food bank, no matter the weather.
“This voluntary work is one of the best things for me,” she said. “The people are so loving and caring. People come to us because we are really nice to them.”
At the end of the day, Ms Mungroo might prepare a meal for herself – often salmon and vegetables, curry, stew or pasta – and she likes to relax by watching a film from her bed.
“God gave me health and strength, and I’m happy about it,” she said, “and gave me a great place to live.”