Blake Hall
Thanksgiving has just passed and the holiday season is official in full swing. Usually, this time of the year inspires charity, friendship and gratitude. Strangers donate toys and winter clothes and volunteer at soup kitchens and shelters to help the less fortunate.
For Navy veteran Philip Williams, however, the holiday spirit is but a weak flame in the face of his newfound homelessness.
When he went to Fort Lauderdale in December 2014 to have surgery, he was unexpectedly kept bedridden for several months due to surgical complications and infection. Upon his return in August 2015, he was shocked to discover that the two-story home in West Hempstead, N.Y. where he had lived since he was six months old had been demolished in his absence.
Here was Williams’ house before he left for his surgery.
And here is what he found upon his return.
“My first thought was there was a fire or something,” Williams said.
There was no fire, and this was no mistake. Believing that Williams’ home was a “blight” upon the community, officials from the Town of Hempstead bulldozed the military veteran’s home while he was too incapacitated to stop them. The authorities who greenlit the demolition also took and destroyed all of the possessions inside the house, including family heirlooms, Williams’ late wife’s engagement ring, a new bicycle and all of his clothes and dishes.
“I’m angry and I’m upset. It’s just wrong on so many levels,” he said. “My mortgage was up to date, my property taxes were up to date … everything was current and fine.”
Neighbors told the Associated Press that Williams’ house was in disrepair. Many actually believed the structure was abandoned due to drawn-out foreclosure proceedings. Town officials sent letters to various banks to inform the Navy veteran of their plans to destroy his home and held a public hearing to discuss the matter, but Williams says that no word ever reached him.
Even if Williams’ home was unfit for habitation as the town claimed, he is arguing in a lawsuit that it was unlawful to go ahead with the demolition without contacting him.
“You see people who went through a tornado or a flood and they say they lost everything, but that’s not preventable,” Williams said. “This was preventable. The town took my house.”