Bronx Tenants Sue Their Landlord After Building Rapidly Declines and A Fire Leaves Several Families Without Gas

October 30, 2018, BRONX, NY – Tenants of 215 East 164th Street gathered outside their building this morning to demand quality repairs and maintenance in their 129-unit building in the Concourse section of the Bronx. After years of watching building maintenance services diminish and conditions deteriorate, tenants are taking action and have filed a case in Bronx Housing Court against their landlord, Sheridan Court Mews Associates L.P.
 

 
“We’ve been working together for more than a year, and now with support from CASA and Bronx Legal Services we’re making demands for the landlord to treat us with the dignity and respect we deserve,” said tenant leader Peter Nurse.
 
In response to tenants’ complaints of chronic leaks, damaged floors, non-functioning intercom systems, and the constant smell of rats in the walls, the City has found 152 open violations of the city’s building codes, 25 of which are classified as immediately hazardous. Recently, a fire in one of the four buildings left 12 families with no gas service. In addition, there are hazardous conditions in multiple apartments and the City ordered one family to vacate their home due to safety concerns. In the three months that have passed since the fire, the landlord has not given the tenants any information about when they can expect gas service to be restored and the most extreme conditions resulting from the fire have not been addressed.
 
“We know that it’s not a question of lack of resources or lack of time, but a lack of respect for tenants who work hard to support their families and their community,” Mr. Nurse continued, “If the City won’t hold landlords accountable it’s up to us as tenants to stand up and say we know our rights and we know we deserve better.”
 
The entire building is rent stabilized as a result of an agreement between New York City and Sheridan Court Mews Associates’ L.P. to provide quality affordable housing to low-income families. Many tenants who have lived in the building since its redevelopment in 1991 report that conditions were well kept and there was adequate security up until five years ago. Now with fewer personnel in the building, management is slow to respond to tenants’ complaints, overall maintenance of the building has suffered, and without a security guard or a fully working intercom system, tenants feel less safe in their own homes.
 
“When I moved in, when the building first opened we used to have a lot of amenities, we had a 24-hour security guard, a working gym, a lot of workers who cared about the building, the landlord even used to throw us Christmas parties! But now it doesn’t seem like anyone in the management cares about the building or about us,” said Ervin Bennett, tenant leader at 215 East 164th Street.
 
For years, tenants have been advocating for repairs on their own by letter, in person meetings, and filing formal complaints with both the City and the State but without any results. “I joined this fight in the fall 2016 because I was tired of my neighbors having to be the ones to sweep and clean our hallways after the landlord got rid of a lot of the porters and workers in the building, and we decided it was no longer acceptable,” shared long-time tenant leader Denise Bradlay. “In our frustration we demanded a meeting with our landlord but he disrespected us and turned us all away except for two of us. Only two people were allowed to talk to him and he refused to talk to the rest of us!”
 
As conditions worsened, tenants reached out to Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA) for organizing support and sought legal representation from Bronx Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition, funded by the NYC Human Resources Administration’s Anti- Harassment and Tenant Protection program. Now tenants are suing in Bronx Housing Court demanding the landlord correct all of the building code violations, so the tenants can have safety and peace of mind.
 
“It is regrettable that the situation has come to this point but the tenants of 215 East 164th Street will avail themselves of every avenue that our system allows to ensure that they have safe and habitable apartments and Bronx Legal Services will stand with them,” says Atenedoro Gonzalez, Staff Attorney at Bronx Legal Services.
 
“All New Yorkers deserve a safe and clean place to call home,” said Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks. “We are happy to support the work of Bronx Legal Services to ensure that landlords who neglect their obligations and keep their tenants living in substandard conditions face the consequences of their actions.”
 
This morning tenants of 215 East 164th Street, along with their City Council Member Vanessa Gibson, and their attorney from Bronx Legal Services spoke about the importance of holding landlords accountable for maintaining their building, and their hopes for the future. “It is not acceptable that in one of the greatest cities in this world we have New Yorkers that are living in these unacceptable conditions… Housing is a fundamental right and we are calling out this landlord for the work that he has not done,” Council Member Vanessa Gibson spoke to an excited crowd of tenants.
 
“We’ve established something we’ve never done before in the building and I think that it will do a lot for the building as a whole. We’re looking forward to working together with our neighbors and our landlord to keep making the building better and safer for our families,” Said Mr. Bennett as he thanked his neighbors for joining the rally.
 
About New Settlement Apartments’ Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA)
CASA is New Settlement Apartments’ housing organizing initiative. CASA is made up of community residents in our densely populated and underserved area of the Southwest Bronx who work together to build our knowledge and leadership to improve the living conditions in our neighborhood and maintain affordable housing through collective action. CASA’s multifaceted work combines building-specific tenant organizing, neighborhood-based campaigns, tenants’ rights workshops, legal clinics, monthly community meetings and a leadership development program. CASA also heavily participates in the work of other coalitions that advocate for legislation to preserve affordable housing and better protect tenants.
 
About Bronx Legal Services
Bronx Legal Services, a program of Legal Services NYC, fights poverty and seeks racial, social, and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers. For 50 years, Bronx Legal Services has challenged systemic injustice and helped clients meet basic needs for housing, access to high-quality education, health care, family stability, and income and economic security. Legal Services NYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country, with neighborhood-based offices across all five boroughs helping more than 80,000 New Yorkers annually.
 
For more information, please contact:
Jordan Cooper, Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), 267-266-0180, [email protected] 
Atenedoro Gonzalez, Bronx Legal Services, 718-928-3768, [email protected]