Seniors return as Marble Hill center reopens after disruptive sewage leak

Editor's note:  A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed quotes by and photos of Yvette Hoover to Charlyne Henry and vice versa. This story was also updated 4/1/26 to include additional information. 

After being forced to close for more than a month because of a sewage leak, the New York City Housing Authority Marble Hill Senior Center at 5365 Broadway is open once again.

In early January, senior center director Ana Bayron and program coordinator Sandra Nielsen encountered rising, murky sewage water in the center’s lounge as a stench Nielsen described as a “Molotov cocktail of horrible stuff” wafted through the air.

This leak wasn’t the first. Last November, the center had another instance where water seeped into the center’s lobby and dining room.

After the January leak, NYCHA maintenance vacuumed up the water, and traced the problem to a collapsed underground waste line in one of the center’s storage closets. On Jan. 16, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene ordered the affected areas be closed, since repairs would involve ripping up the floor, according to a NYCHA spokesperson. However, Nielsen said the center was notified about the closure the day prior by the New York City Department for the Aging. 

A few days later, the pipe was patched up, and over the next two weeks the floor was replaced. Maintenance then painted and sanitized the affected rooms. But the incident left more than 50 seniors without a familiar place to connect with one another. They had come to rely on the center for its daily lunches, mental health and referral services, clubs, parties, and classes such as belly dancing.

“They didn’t care for it too much,” Bayron said about the seniors. “They were looking to come back here — this is like their home, they feel comfortable here.”

Bayron and Nielson said they still went into the office to call the seniors and check in daily. They recommended seniors visit other adult centers in the area, but many refused.

For others, it was a matter of convenience. Yvette Hoover, a 71-year-old who has lived in the nearby Marble Hill Houses for 15 years, couldn’t make the time to go to another community center when she already had doctor’s appointments to attend and errands to run. Hoover lost her husband at the start of the pandemic, and found comfort in the center.

“That was really traumatizing for me,” she said about her husband’s death. “They didn’t know what COVID was. I couldn’t have my family visit me. I couldn’t have anybody … The center was a therapy for me.”

Charlyne Henry, 69, has frequented the senior center for the last five years, and met Hoover through St. Stephen’s Methodist Church on West 228th Street, where they both sing in the choir. Henry said she kept busy with the Jewish Association Serving the Aging on West 231st Street, but was glad to see the center back open.

The senior center, run by nonprofit Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, is one part of Marble Hill’s community center, which also provides English for Speakers of Other Languages classes and an after-school program for kids and young adults called Cornerstone.

Though the senior program was paused, other programs continued. A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development said Cornerstone was able to keep operating in the center by relocating activities to other rooms.

Mike Halpern, assistant director of youth services at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, said the affected areas were checked for asbestos, and the center was able to maintain programming for the kids.

“It’s not our property, but we are responsible for the kids,” Halpern said, adding that he was in constant communication with staff and city agencies. “We make sure that everybody’s safe at all times.”

Halpern said staff didn’t complain to him regarding the sewage odor, and when he visited the center in February he did not smell anything.

The community center as a whole is undergoing a $4.5 million upgrade, currently in the design phase and set to be completed by March 2029. The project focuses on finishes such as new walls, windows, lighting and flooring. According to a NYCHA spokesperson, the project includes some plumbing updates to the kitchen and bathrooms, but not for the entire floor, or for waste lines and sewer lines.

Bayron expressed concern that the new upgrades don’t address the main issue of outdated piping.

“If they don’t do the repairs inside out, it’s just going to be cosmetic,” Bayron said. “It’s not going to last.”