There is one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wearing a T-shirt that protests the construction of the West Side stadium. It was a project that he, in fact, supported — and one that Ms. Bermúdez, who lives in the neighborhood that would have been affected, did not.

“I made him much more handsome than he is,” Ms. Bermúdez, 66, said.

There is one of Christie, her dachshund. And there is one of a woman asleep, unaware of the bedbugs that have invaded her apartment.

Ms. Bermúdez cited Frida Kahlo as one of her inspirations, mentioning Kahlo’s vibrant use of color, but resisted further comparisons.

“My life is much fuller than hers,” she said. “I don’t have that much sadness in my life.”

In mid-March of 2001, Ms. Bermúdez, then a designer, arrived for work at a bridal-wear company in the garment district. As she started across the workroom floor, she slipped, slamming her right shoulder against a metal door handle.

The resulting injury, which broke her upper arm in three places, required the insertion of metal rods in her shoulder and two years of physical therapy.

“I couldn’t even pick up a cup,” she recalled. “I still don’t have full-range motion of my arm.”

Her accident, Ms. Bermúdez said, coincided with a protracted legal dispute with her landlord, as she struggled to retain the third-floor apartment on West 34th Street where she has lived since she was 26.

During this period, she said, she was not notified of a rent increase, which eventually put her thousands of dollars in debt.

Housing court records show at least three lawsuits filed against Ms. Bermúdez. The most recent indicates that in 2004, she agreed to pay a total of $14,093.45 for “all rents prior to April 2001” and “for the period April 1, 2001, through Sept. 30, 2004.”

After her accident, Ms. Bermúdez had no steady source of income. And while workers’ compensation covered the cost of her hospital bills, years of legal fees had chipped away at her savings.

No longer able to afford a lawyer, Ms. Bermúdez turned to Housing Conservation Coordinators, which offered legal guidance necessary to help settle her debt. With money from several social service organizations, including the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, which gave her $1,500 toward her arrears, she said she managed to come up with most of the remaining sum.

Now, because of New York State’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, her rent is frozen at $1,021. But she still lives on a tight budget, with just under $1,000 in federal aid, including Social Security, plus $500 her older sister sends her each month.

And then, a little over a year ago, the bedbugs arrived.

In October 2009, she woke up to find bites all over her body. She immediately discarded her sofa and mattress.

Ms. Bermúdez said she spent about $3,000 repeatedly washing clothes and buying the necessary cleaning supplies.

In October 2010, long after her apartment had been exterminated and she was certain she no longer had bedbugs, she again turned to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. With $620, Ms. Bermúdez bought a new sofa.

Financially, she says, she is just getting by. Still, Ms. Bermúdez contends that she considers herself lucky, reasoning that there are people far worse off.

“I always say my life is like the Internet,” she said. “You put in what you want, and the universe gives it to you.”

View the original article here

There is one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wearing a T-shirt that protests the construction of the West Side stadium. It was a project that he, in fact, supported — and one that Ms. Bermúdez, who lives in the neighborhood that would have been affected, did not.

“I made him much more handsome than he is,” Ms. Bermúdez, 66, said.

There is one of Christie, her dachshund. And there is one of a woman asleep, unaware of the bedbugs that have invaded her apartment.

Ms. Bermúdez cited Frida Kahlo as one of her inspirations, mentioning Kahlo’s vibrant use of color, but resisted further comparisons.

“My life is much fuller than hers,” she said. “I don’t have that much sadness in my life.”

In mid-March of 2001, Ms. Bermúdez, then a designer, arrived for work at a bridal-wear company in the garment district. As she started across the workroom floor, she slipped, slamming her right shoulder against a metal door handle.

The resulting injury, which broke her upper arm in three places, required the insertion of metal rods in her shoulder and two years of physical therapy.

“I couldn’t even pick up a cup,” she recalled. “I still don’t have full-range motion of my arm.”

Her accident, Ms. Bermúdez said, coincided with a protracted legal dispute with her landlord, as she struggled to retain the third-floor apartment on West 34th Street where she has lived since she was 26.

During this period, she said, she was not notified of a rent increase, which eventually put her thousands of dollars in debt.

Housing court records show at least three lawsuits filed against Ms. Bermúdez. The most recent indicates that in 2004, she agreed to pay a total of $14,093.45 for “all rents prior to April 2001” and “for the period April 1, 2001, through Sept. 30, 2004.”

After her accident, Ms. Bermúdez had no steady source of income. And while workers’ compensation covered the cost of her hospital bills, years of legal fees had chipped away at her savings.

No longer able to afford a lawyer, Ms. Bermúdez turned to Housing Conservation Coordinators, which offered legal guidance necessary to help settle her debt. With money from several social service organizations, including the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, which gave her $1,500 toward her arrears, she said she managed to come up with most of the remaining sum.

Now, because of New York State’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, her rent is frozen at $1,021. But she still lives on a tight budget, with just under $1,000 in federal aid, including Social Security, plus $500 her older sister sends her each month.

And then, a little over a year ago, the bedbugs arrived.

In October 2009, she woke up to find bites all over her body. She immediately discarded her sofa and mattress.

Ms. Bermúdez said she spent about $3,000 repeatedly washing clothes and buying the necessary cleaning supplies.

In October 2010, long after her apartment had been exterminated and she was certain she no longer had bedbugs, she again turned to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the seven beneficiary agencies of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. With $620, Ms. Bermúdez bought a new sofa.

Financially, she says, she is just getting by. Still, Ms. Bermúdez contends that she considers herself lucky, reasoning that there are people far worse off.

“I always say my life is like the Internet,” she said. “You put in what you want, and the universe gives it to you.”

View the original article here