Dozens of New Yorkers at risk of eviction as MTA makes way for Second Avenue Subway: ‘People are nervous’

Make way for the eviction train.

Dozens of New Yorkers in 33 apartments across East Harlem are at risk of getting kicked out of their homes and businesses as the MTA forges ahead with the Second Avenue Subway’s next phase.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has embarked on a blitz of legal seizures to clear the way for planned new subway stations at 116th and 125th streets — with evictions unfolding as soon as Oct. 15, officials said and records show.

Aaliyah Vasquez, 42, told The Post her grandmother was being uprooted from her life after receiving an eviction notice for 2058 Second Ave.

“She’s very sad about it,” said Vasquez. “My grandmother has lived here for years. Her pharmacy is the one on the corner. She gets her home supplies from the deli across the street. She buys her meat from the butcher next door.

“I understand the need for more trains down here, it’s a subway drought on Second Avenue. But you can’t uproot people’s lives to do it. I don’t even see how it’s legal,” said Vasquez, who is now helping her grandma find a new home.

The MTA, according to court records, is claiming eminent domain — the government’s constitutional power to snatch private public property for public use, as long as the owner is given just compensation — to seize the buildings.

During the Second Avenue Subway’s $4.45 billion first phase — which extended the Q line to 96th Street and was completed in 2017 — the MTA spent roughly $10 million of the total cost to relocate residents whose homes were in the path of the new stations, officials said.

The MTA helped the tenants who were forced to relocate due to eminent domain with financial assistance, finding a real estate agent and other other moving resources, an MTA spokesperson said.

The project’s anticipated $7.7 billion second phase is expected to have fewer relocations, but the final cost has yet to be tallied as the acquisitions are ongoing, the spokesperson said.

The addresses up for seizure can be found on a list of properties, mostly along Second Avenue and 125th Street, posted online by the MTA as the agency held public hearings on the issue. At least one of those properties is no longer being considered for eminent domain, officials said.

MTA officials couldn’t come up with the full list of properties that would be seized, despite repeated requests by The Post Monday.

Officials did confirm that New Yorkers living in 33 apartments will be evicted under their subway plans.

Court records showed eminent domain proceedings have started for at least 13 of the properties on the original list, some of which are vacant.

One Harlem family interviewed by Gothamist shared with the outlet a notice giving them 90 days to leave their home.

“We’re definitely in limbo,” a family member, Jocelyn Diego, told Gothamist. “It’s too much to process, and not only that, we’re just hoping that they find us an apartment because at the end, me and my mom feel like [the MTA] have the responsibility to find an apartment.”

A worker in a store along Second Avenue, who did not want to be identified, said she’s unsure what the owner will do.

“People are nervous. They have been in the neighborhood for years,” she said.

“It’s really hard. People don’t know where to go since rent is so high everywhere.”

MTA board members Monday approved a $1.9 billion contract for crews to begin tunneling and work on two new subway stations as part of the next phase of the project — a vote attended by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“It’s a handful of properties that we haven’t yet acquired, and then there’s a set of easements that we require and agreements to underpin property or put vibration monitoring on it,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, the MTA’s president of construction and development.

“We are way, way ahead of where (phase one) was in terms of acquisitions. Not everything has been completed, but it’s no secret to this.”

— Additional reporting by Dorian Geiger and Peter Senzamici