They’re kicking them like a bad habit.
The nuns running St. Joseph’s Immigran♍t Home in Hell’s Kitchen are boosting the rent on young female residents and trying to 🦂boot women who have lived there for decades.
Now tenants at the West 44th Street building are raising hell — claiming the nonprofit is blowing funds on luxury f💜rills and refusing to provide accounting.
“You can really tell they do not want us in the building,” said Rachel Wunder, 21, a ballet dancer whose monthly rent is now $8♍00, up from $600. “They’re trying to suck everybody dry here.”
“It’s very abrupt, and we’re not prepared for this,ღ” said one longtime resident whose rent jumped from $385 monthly for a tiny room𒆙 to $535. “They’re closing the door on people.”
St. Joseph’s is part of the Catholic Ch๊arities of the Archdiocese of New York and run by the Daughters of Mary of the Immacu💖late Conception in New Britain, Conn.
The five-story facility, established in the 1920s, has about 80 single-room-occupancy units and initially served immigrantꩵ women. Today it houses students and young professionals, as well as older, working-class immigrants who have lived in the small furnished rooms for years.
Tenants share a kitchen and bathroom aꦯnd must pay electricity fees for their dorm refrigerators and A𒊎C units.
Earlier this year, the home’s administrator, Nancy Clifforꦚd, announced🦩 hefty rent hikes — in some cases by nearly 50 percent.
But nearly half the 70 residents are refusing to pay the new rate and putting funds in escrow after being slapped with legal documents demanding that𒆙 they vacate the building by July 31.
“It’s a hostile relationship right now,” said JoJo Monsanto, who moved from the Philippines to St. Jose🐭ph’s in 2001. “Right now, they are not budging. The🔯y are very adamant that they want the money.”
Mother Mary Jennifer Carroll, superior general of the congregation, said the hike co💖vers “receꦬnt unavoidable expenditures for the building repairs” but would not elaborate.
St. Joseph’s will “work appropriately with each to a♑ddress individual situations,” Carroll told The Post in a statement.
Residents say Clifford wasted funds on unneces🎶sary renovations and furnish🃏ings, including mirrors and tables in common hallways and new carpeting, and hired private security.
They say Clifford told𝓀 tenants she had to borrow $300,000 to pay for repairs to the building, which is owned by the sisters.
“It’s a difficult✃ situation,” said Wunder, who has been at St. Joseph’s since 2011. “There are many of us who can pay an increase. The issue is that there is a﷽bsolutely no accountability.”
The nonprofit’s expenses soared in 2ཧ012, when it had revenues of $322,233 and 🌟operated at a $223,250 deficit, tax forms reveal. The previous year, it faced a $4,282 deficit.
From 2011 to 2012, expenses for “occupancy” jumped from $𒆙92,570 to $316,544, documents show.
In a mee🍌ting last week, residents again were told this cost was for “repairs.”
They wrote to Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities, asking for ✨financial help, to no avail.
Housing advocates and residents say the nuns haven’t been receptive to suggestions or alternative funding, includi🉐ng a grant from an elected official.
“The mission of Catholic Charities stresses upholding the dignity of ✱each person and serving the needs of the poor,” said Marti Weithman, director of the Goddard Riverside SRO Law Project. “We don’t believe the way the tenants are being treated is in line with that mission.”
Th🌄e Archdiocese of N꧃ew York did not respond to questions.