VICTORY: Bronx Tenants Win $400,000 in Rent Abatements in Settlement against Landlord, Continue Fight for Repairs

BRONX, NY (October 4, 2023) – Rent-stabilized tenants residing at 1187 Anderson Avenue, 1195 Anderson Avenue, and 1230 Woodycrest Avenue in the Bronx will gather in front 1187 Anderson Avenue on October 4, 2023 at 6pm to celebrate a settlement with notorious landlord  Emerald Equity Group/Living Emerald NY LLC awarding tenants more than $400,000 in rent abatements for the landlord’s repeated failure to make repairs.

 
The settlement also sets out a schedule for the landlord to finally make repairs—including providing adequate heating and hot water, exterminate cockroaches, mice, rats, and other pests, removal of mold, addressing plumbing issues, repairing leaky roof, providing janitorial services across building, and fixing the elevators and intercom systems—within 30 days of the settlement or face stiff civil penalties. Tenants were organized with the help of New Settlement’s membership-driven tenant organizing project, Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), represented by Bronx Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition Unit, and supported by Assembly Member Latoya Joyner, and Anti-Harassment Unit Housing Litigation Division Office of Enforcement and Neighborhood Services.

• Read settlement agreements here
• See photos of building conditions here
• Tenants available for walk through of apartments and comment

“When I heard about the settlement and that we officially settled, I felt like a weight had been lifted from me,” said 1187 Anderson tenant leader Mercedes Escoto. Bad landlords kill tenants mentally and physically, and we have been under this burden for so long – I feel free for the first time in a long time. We want to make sure tenants all over the city keep fighting, because this is what we can win what you organize and fight.”

“We hope this settlement sends a message to landlords across the City that there are real consequences for failing to make repairs,” said John Montoute, Director of the Tenants Rights Coalition at Bronx Legal Services. “These tenants, and tenants like them citywide, deserve safe and habitable homes for themselves and their families and shouldn’t have to drag their landlord to court to get basic repairs and upkeep. Rest assured that we will be closely monitoring their progress on repairs to ensure full compliance with the settlement and will not hesitate to take them back to court if they fail to keep up their end of the bargain.”

“It is great to join my neighbors as we celebrate another hard-fought win for Highbridge residents,” Assemblymember Latoya Joyner (D-Bronx, 77th AD) said. “I have been fighting for access to quality affordable housing for Bronx residents since before I was first elected, and this settlement is an important victory for our families. It’s a new day for these tenants, and it’s a powerful reminder that tenants can successfully fight back to protect their rights. Emerald Equity and other unscrupulous landlords should take the hint that our families will not be rolled over and the next time they fail to make repairs or pay the electric bill, they will face a fight.”

 
Tenants first brought the court case in May 2022, after years of living in dangerous conditions despite countless requests for the landlord to fix issues in the building. Tenants then launched rent strikes in the spring (for 1230 Woodycrest) and the fall (for 1187 Anderson) and have fought to make sure their landlord appropriately fix the buildings and provide essential services, such as ConEd.
 
This is not the tenants’ first victory against Emerald Equity, now renamed Living Emerald NY LLC. In February 2022, 1191 Anderson Avenue, 1195 Anderson Avenue, 1220 Shakespeare Avenue, 1210 Woodycrest Avenue, and 1230 Woodycrest Avenue successfully defeated Emerald Equity’s attempt to deregulate their buildings by claiming substantial rehabilitation in an application to New York State’s Division of Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR), the agency which oversees rent regulation. With the help of Bronx Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition, tenants filed an opposition to the application arguing that rehabilitation was paid for with public funds from a program that prohibits the deregulation of the building, forcing Emerald to issue rent-stabilized leases to tenants and keep their apartments affordable.

But the tenants’ organizing fight is far over. Tenants continue to demand their landlord repair hazardous conditions in the buildings.

###