by Mireya Navarro

An elderly woman whose pending eviction from her apartment in Manhattan's Little Italy by the Italian American Museum was denounced by housing advocates has until June 30 to leave under an agreement between the two parties. The woman, Adele Sarno, 85, the daughter of Italian immigrants, went to Housing Court last month to stave off eviction after losing a yearslong fight to stay in the two-bedroom apartment where she said she has lived since the 1960s. She pays only $820 a month for a unit that could fetch five times as much and said she could not meet the increased rent sought by the museum. Officials at the museum, which owns her building and occupies space next door, said the museum also needed space to expand.

Ms. Sarno said the settlement, reached Monday, gives her and her lawyers some time to try to find a smaller place in Little Italy. "It's all right," Ms. Sarno said. "I knew this was coming. That's enough just so that I have enough time to move out the furniture. It's too much."

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/