Javel Saudades and Daniel Hallacy say they’ve experienced intermittent antigay harassment from neighbors since 2001, and it shows no signs of abating.
The Norris Square couple says several of their neighbors routinely refer to them as “faggots” when they walk by, and blast rap music with offensive lyrics in their direction.
“Blasting the music is a calculated but safer way for them to intimidate us,” said Hallacy, 39. “As long as they have someone to hate, they feel great.”
Since 2001, the couple has called 911 for police assistance more than 100 times, they said, but the torment persists.
Saudades’ 81-year-old mother lives with the couple, and she’s also affected by the harassment.
“We are all nervous wrecks,” said Saudades, 59. “We have been terrorized. These [neighbors] are brewing. At any moment it can explode.”
Acts of harassment by neighbors include spray-painting “faggot” on the couple’s front door, depositing a metal object shaped as a penis on their doorstep and trashing a Zen garden created by Saudades.
The couple’s van was vandalized so frequently that they had a friend tow it away several years ago.
“We went through 15 sets of tires,” Saudades said.
Added Hallacy: “We’re reduced to being pedestrians. We walk everywhere. It limits our contact with people we wish to see. And, unfortunately, it also brings us into closer contact with our tormentors.”
In 2006, the couple was physically assaulted by a group of neighbors. They emphasized that they don’t want to go through a similar experience in the future.
A few years ago, Hallacy took refuge by moving to his parents’ home in North Carolina.
“I had to leave,” he said. “I couldn’t focus on my life or my priorities.”
But now he’s back, and facing his tormentors once again.
“Nothing has changed,” Hallacy said. “It feels like I’m living in a morally degenerate atmosphere. But when we complain to authorities, their response is, ‘That’s the way it is in Philadelphia.’”
A Philadelphia police spokesperson had no comment for this story.
Saudades said living in a state of terror has become a way of life. “We haven’t felt safe for 14 years. We live under terroristic threats every day.”
Last month, a neighbor vandalized a 20-inch stove belonging to the couple, they said.
Hallacy said the vandalism prompted a new round of calls to police, who came out to investigate on three separation occasions.
“It wasn’t an adequate response by police,” Saudades said, noting that loud music, harassment, drug activity and terrorism continue.
“There is no resolution,” Saudades said. “We would love a resolution. We’ve been surviving here, not living.”
Saudades said he doesn’t have financial resources to move to another area.
“My mother and I made United States our home, and we don’t have the means to move from here,” he said. “And it’s outrageous to think that we would have to move because of terrorism.”