Article Courtesy of The Daily Beast
By Justin Rohrlich
Published September 11, 2023
An apparently
intractable conflict between a Florida condo board and a
disabled 9/11 responder over him leaving his shoes outside
his front door has become so toxic that the federal
government has stepped in to try and resolve it.
Charlie Burge worked
for the New York City Department of Sanitation for 35 years,
first hitting the pavement in 1981 and eventually overseeing
nighttime operations in North Brooklyn. On September 11,
2001, Burge ran across the Brooklyn Bridge to help out at
the World Trade Center when he saw the buildings burning. He
spent more than 400 days clearing debris at ground zero,
then sifting through it at the Fresh Kills landfill on
Staten Island—where the wreckage was being sent by the
truckload—for victims’ belongings and human remains.
Burge was subsequently diagnosed with
seven health conditions, including upper respiratory issues,
gastrointestinal ailments, skin cancer, and PTSD, that
federal officials have certified are related to cleanup work
at the World Trade Center site. Sometimes he has difficulty
breathing and swallowing, and now must always keep an EpiPen
on hand for emergencies. |
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When Burge retired in
2015, he and his wife, Anna, moved to Florida. They planned
to live out their golden years, peacefully, at the Links
South at Harbour Village, a condominium complex in Ponce
Inlet, south of Daytona Beach, where the couple had
purchased an apartment seven years earlier. To make sure no
irritants get trapped inside their home, the Burges don’t
have curtains, upholstered furniture, any pets, or carpeting
of any kind.
In order to avoid
needlessly aggravating Charlie’s symptoms, the two began
leaving their shoes in the hallway outside their
apartment—on a doctor’s advice—to help keep out outdoor
allergens like pollen, mold, dust, and grasses that could
trigger respiratory distress. Their door is set back from
the outdoor passageway by several feet, and the shoes were
not in a place where they could block anyone’s path, they
said.
Years went by without a complaint. Suddenly, in October
2017, the condo board issued the Burges a “rule violation
notice,” informing them that if their shoes weren’t back
inside within 10 days, the building would take legal action.
What happened next demonstrated a clear pattern of Fair
Housing Act violations, according to the Department of
Justice, which on Oct. 8 filed a civil action against the
Links South condo association for discrimination. Under the
act, the DOJ says, the board should make reasonable
accommodations—such as allowing someone to leave shoes
outside their door—so that the Burges would have “an equal
opportunity to use and enjoy” their home.
“I’m not looking for fame or recognition. I’m just looking
to live my life,” Burge, now 67, told The Daily Beast.
In January 2018, the board targeted the
Burges again for leaving their shoes in the hallway.
This time, the condo
association specifically referenced item No. 4 of the
community rules and regulations, which states: “Personal
items may not be left at your front door such as shoes,
chairs, towels, fishing poles, boogie boards, skateboards,
etc. A doormat and a wreath are the only items allowed at
your front door.” |
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The shoes at the center of the issue.
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20 Years After
9/11, Victim Families May Finally Get a Trial
If the shoes weren’t gone in a week, the notice warned,
building staff would remove and discard them after 48 hours.
A week later, the Burges opened their front door and found
their shoes missing. They called the police, who came and
helped the two retrieve their shoes from the building’s
management office. The following month, the Burges received
another rules violation notice for leaving their shoes
outside their unit. The next day, their shoes were removed
and taken to the management office. Again, the couple called
the police, who showed up to help them get their shoes back.
Next came a letter from a lawyer hired by the condo
association, warning them to “cease and desist” from leaving
their shoes outside the door. If they didn’t comply, the
building would seek an injunction forcing them to do so. And
that’s when the local authorities showed up to have a word
with Charlie.
“The police chief came to my house and said I can’t be tying
up his officers [to constantly come and retrieve his
shoes],” said Burge. “When the police chief in a small town
comes to your house and asks for a favor, you do what he
asks. So I brought my shoes in, and my conditions worsened.”
So Burge hired a lawyer. In April 2018, his attorney,
Elizabeth Devolder, sent a formal request for a “reasonable
accommodation” to allow Burge and his wife to leave their
shoes outside their unit because of his failing health. They
provided documentation from Burge’s medical providers: A
recommendation from his doctor not to track “outdoor
allergens, chemicals, or pollutants” into the home because
of his various health conditions, and a request from a
physician’s assistant to let Burge leave his shoes outside
so as not to increase his suffering. The Burges also
included an academic study on shoe-borne pathogens, as well
as a letter from the World Trade Center Health program
outlining the specifics of Charlie’s various maladies.
Two days later, the condo association’s attorney requested
further documentation, as well as an explanation as to why
an accommodation was in fact necessary. “As you can imagine,
when your respiratory system is inflamed, it’s hard to
breathe,” Devolder told The Daily Beast. “When your
gastrointestinal system is inflamed, you may not be able to
eat, you may not be able to absorb nutrients, it just makes
sense to me that you would need to prevent that
inflammation—the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems
are pretty essential.”
Meanwhile, the condo board chief regularly parked a double
stroller for his family outside of his unit, with impunity,
according to Devolder.“If they’re enforcing a rule that says
‘nothing outside the doors,’ then why is the board president
allowed to do that and the 9/11 worker can’t leave his shoes
outside?” she said.
The head of the condo board and Burge’s main antagonist, Al
Olearchick, and the lawyer representing the condo board,
Katherine Hurst Miller, did not respond to The Daily Beast’s
requests for comment.
“They say they didn’t discriminate,” said Burge. “Well, the
federal government says you did.”
The two sides then engaged in a seemingly endless
back-and-forth over Burge’s medical evidence, with the
condo’s lawyer claiming that it “did not establish a causal
relationship between Mr. Burge’s shoes and ‘an undefined
allergy or disability,’” the government’s complaint states.
The condo asked Burge for permission to inspect and
photograph his unit and “examine all shoes and vegetation
within the unit and balcony,” authenticated copies of his
medical and prescription records for the past two years,
copies of any test results of the unit for any allergens or
molds within the past year, and “any authoritative
materials, which substantiate the correlation between an
allergy documented by Mr. Burge and the need to store shoes
outside.”
Devolder followed up with a letter from Burge’s allergist,
which said, “Although issues may or may not occur when shoes
are inside, some potential allergens and pesticides could
cause extreme or even life-threatening respiratory distress
or gastrointestinal inflammation that are hard to recover
from. All caution should be taken to avoid these high-risk
outcomes. It would be beneficial to make an arrangement for
shoes to be stored outside of the home.”
Again, the condo’s lawyer responded by claiming the
allergist’s letter “did not establish a nexus between Mr.
Burge’s allergies or other disabilities and his shoes.”
So Devolder provided yet another letter from Burge’s
physician, which stated that Burge “is allergic to mold,
mites, dust, pollen, trees, and grasses, all of which may
exacerbate his conditions,” further explaining, “These upper
respiratory conditions cause difficulty primarily with
breathing and swallowing, but can also affect speaking,
eating, and hearing.”
“I've been to three speech pathologists over the past three
years because my voice changes in texture and tone,” said
Burge. “I have trouble swallowing, sometimes it gives me a
speech impediment. At the last [condo board] meeting, they
made fun of me because I pronounced a word wrong.”
Bringing his shoes inside puts Burge “at unnecessary risk of
inflammation, difficulty breathing or swallowing, a possible
complete inability to breathe or swallow,” the letter said,
which noted that leaving the shoes outside gives any
pollutants or allergens a chance to dissipate—the Burges’
apartment opens onto an open-air walkway, not an indoor
hallway—"without the risk of transfer to Mr. Burge’s living
area.”
Finally, in February 2019, the condo’s legal team replied,
claiming that “the doctor’s letter does not connect the dots
by stating specifically the nexus of such allergies to the
specific substance presumably on his shoes.” The lawyers
asked if Burge had gotten a doctor or lab to test his shoes,
how Burge’s doctor advised him how to deal with shoes inside
his vehicle, and “if Mr. and Mrs. Burge had any
peer-reviewed medical articles that substantiated the
correlation between Mr. Burge’s allergies and leaving his
shoes outside,” states the government’s complaint.
In April 2019, Devolder filed a complaint with the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which was
headed at the time by Trump appointee Ben Carson. HUD
determined that the condo association had indeed
discriminated against Burge, clearing the way for DOJ to
eventually file its own civil complaint. A source close to
the case who asked for anonymity so as not to create even
more problems for Burge told The Daily Beast that the condo
board began to lash out in subtle but obvious ways.
Unfounded rumors about Burge and his wife began to circulate
throughout the community, and the board made statements
during public meetings about how much Burge’s legal
maneuvers were costing the condo association, according to
the source. Trying to meet them halfway, Burge began washing
his shoes before going inside, using a spigot located in the
garage. Soon, building management removed the spigot handle,
preventing Burge from rinsing outside pollutants from his
soles, according to Burge.
“When I walk to the beach, I have to walk through the golf
course, and there’s a lot of chemicals on a golf course,” he
said.
At the same time, the association wasn’t holding other
residents to the same standard, according to a building
source, who said, “There is one unit owner that repeatedly
left bags of canine fecal matter—dog shit—outside of his
unit, and he was never given a violation notice.”
In the fall of 2020, Burge began to experience bleeding in
his gastrointestinal tract, and the muscles around his
throat began to contract, making it even harder for him to
swallow, according to Devolder. In light of his increased
physical suffering, which was further enhanced by stress,
Devolder said she encouraged the condo association’s
leadership to “act decently toward Mr. Burge.”
Last month, the condo board authorized Burge to
“temporarily” leave his shoes outside, said Devolder, “until
there is a final resolution.” Building officials continue to
deny any wrongdoing and told Devolder that they plan to
mount a vigorous court fight.
“This case has not been brought forward by Mr. Burge,” said
Devolder, “it has been brought forward by the United States
Department of Justice, which finds the violation of the Fair
Housing Act so egregious, that it’s in the interest of the
United States to prosecute the condo association. Mr. Burge
has no interest in suing an association that will ultimately
be assessed for the cost of litigation, and he will
ultimately share in that cost. He doesn’t want to do that.
But he has run out of alternatives for a resolution over an
accommodation that costs the association nothing.”
Burge, for his part, says he simply wants to be left alone
and said he doesn’t know why the building decided to come
after him.
“They keep escalating and threatening, more and more,” he
said.
Burge’s apartment overlooks a golf course, and he can see
the ocean from his balcony. He always planned on retiring to
Ponce Inlet, he said, because, “There’s different air down
here. And it’s beautiful.”
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