After months of confusion and uncertainty, Chiz’s Heart Street is likely closed for good.

Fourteen disabled adult tenants of the Kingston group home at the center of much recent controversy were displaced over the weekend when a fire broke out on the second floor of one of the three connected buildings, according to authorities.

Someone inside started the fire at around 2:15 a.m. Sunday, the Kingston deputy chief said. All 14 tenants were safely moved.

Though the fire was confined to one structure, electricity and water service to the other two had to be cut, forcing the tenants' displacement.

The fire is still under investigation.

“It’s one day at a time," said Norma, one of the displaced tenants, in an interview in her hotel room Monday. Her disability requires her to use a walker, she said, while other tenants live with serious mental conditions such as schizophrenia.

The tenants have three nights in hotel rooms provided by the Red Cross to figure out where they will live next.

“We’ve been through an enormous amount," Norma, 66, said with tears in her eyes, “and it’s tough to be able to think logically, knowing you’re going to go through this again.”

In a statement, County Executive Pat Ryan called the displacement an “absolute tragedy,” and said county social workers were setting tenants up with “emergency housing” at local motels. 

Life for tenants of Chiz’s Heart Street was disrupted in early 2021 when they learned the property was going to be sold and that tenants would have to be removed in order for the sale to go through.

While about 50 tenants were placed in new homes, roughly 20 chose to hold out for more assistance and better homes.

In July, the remaining tenants received notices from the property manager, notifying tenants they must move out before July 15.

Tenants were later advised by Ryan and Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa that they did not have to move because the state’s eviction moratorium was still in effect. The moratorium expires Jan. 15.

The stress has weighed heavily on Norma and others.

“We’re hoping that somebody, someone out there who’s got a lot more resources will find in their heart more compassion than what we’ve been shown,” she said.

Property owner Richard Caggiano said Monday he was “frustrated at the turn of events.” Caggiano had been working with tenants to find them actual homes, not motel rooms, per an agreement he made with them this past summer.

After the departure of manager Sharon ‘Chiz’ Chisholm in May, some social workers had made contact with tenants, multiple tenants said, but did not follow up.

Caggiano said he did not receive much help from county agencies who once used to place clients in the crumbling group home.

“It should have been handled months ago,” he said. “There are people who can’t take care of themselves, taking care of the building.”

Neighbors Wayne Lewis and Richard Sullivan, who used to live at Chiz’s and would often still visit friends at the group home, said they would frequently see Caggiano at the property working on a security system and a sprinkler system that helped put out this weekend’s fire.

They said more people must step up, and that local governments left the tenants "high and dry."

“It’s a tragedy that people had to leave in those circumstances, instead of getting the help they were supposed to get,” Lewis said.

Tenants like Norma could end up living at any one of 19 motels on the Ulster County Department of Social Services’ list of emergency housing vendors.

Six of those motels are located in Kingston, making it likely that some of the remaining tenants will be forced to live outside of the city, away from family, friends and services.

At her hotel room, Norma said she has been praying for a new, more creative solution.

“I’m hoping that this message is heard, viewed and absorbed by someone with a little power,” she said of her interview.