Bronx Tenants Sue Landlord to Fix Hazardous Living Conditions

BRONX, NY – Tenants of 215 East 164th Street in the South Bronx gathered outside their Rent Stabilized building complex this week to demand their landlord, David Eisenstein, fix hazardous building conditions they’ve been living with for years, including a rat infestation, unpatched holes in the wall, chronic leaks, damaged floors, and limited elevator use. Tenants sued their landlord years ago for many of the same issues, but poor-quality patchwork repairs and a general failure to perform adequate maintenance have forced tenants to file a new lawsuit against their landlord to demand that lasting repairs be made. 

“This is the second time we’ve taken this landlord to court,” said Ervin Bennett, a tenant leader in the building. “We started this fight three years ago. We took him to court for repairs, a broken elevator, and access to the back door. Still, the landlord refuses to give us repairs.”

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. Eisenstein has also failed to honor a 2018 rent reduction order from the Department of Homes and Community Renewal, a state agency, which issued the order due to lack of building-wide services and repairs. Several tenants are pursuing rent overcharge complaints in the hopes of finally receiving the back-rent that is owed to them.

Numerous tenants have recently joined the fight as conditions in the building worsen. Resident Vinicio Ortiz said, “I joined my neighbors in this case for repairs because I had a lot of issues in my apartment that the landlord was not addressing. The issues my neighbors and I are facing include chronic leaks, mold, unpatched holes, broken floors, and old bathroom and kitchen fixtures that need to be replaced.”

Eisenstein, who owns 66 buildings throughout the City, took over the building in January 2019 and has been slow to make necessary repairs or adequately address tenants’ concerns yet is renovating other vacant apartments to turn a profit. He has also raised tenants’ rents by hundreds of dollars by removing their preferential rents. Tenants also raised concern with the landlord shutting down elevator service at night and denying tenants use of the accessible side door, causing elderly and disabled tenants to be trapped in their homes.

“This address is home to many sisters and brothers with different types of disabilities and needs, who have found themselves physically and emotionally crippled in their homes from 8:30pm to 7am every day because between those hours the elevator gets locked, denying everyone basement and ramp access,” said tenant Andrea Ortiz. “It’s a safety hazard and it’s robbing us of living life comfortably.”

Ms. Ortiz also described how the disrepair places an unnecessary burden this also places on parents and those with shopping carts. Tenant Kadiatou Diallo did a demonstration of how difficult it is to go up the stairs with her three young children, one of whom is in a stroller. Vinicio Ortiz, himself a senior citizen, followed her struggling with a shopping cart. “The tenants at 215 E 164th Street are asking out landlord to please give us 24-hour, 7-day-a-week access to our elevators so that we could leave and come back to our homes freely without fearing to be locked out due to ridiculous elevator time restrictions and policies imposed by the landlord, and to allow all tenants access to the side gate of the building,” Andrea Ortiz continued.

Over the years, conditions in the common areas have also deteriorated due to cutbacks and negligence. Hallways are left dirty, and often smell of garbage or dead rats.

Tenant leader Gloribel Castillo said, “we have come together as a Tenants’ Association not only to fight for repairs in our own apartments, but to make sure the common areas we share are also well maintained. The plants in our courtyard have become so overgrown that tenants in the first three floors of the building can’t open their windows without large insects entering our homes.” Ms. Castillo also refers to management getting rid of their security guard, and describes how the front door is often broken. “The landlord should be doing more to make sure that we have a safe and well-maintained building.”

Tenants have been working with 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.

“These tenants have endured these dangerous livings conditions for far too long, now during a pandemic. They deserve better,” said Atenedoro Gonzalez, an attorney at Bronx Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition. “In addition to taking legal action to force repairs once and for all, we’re also hiring outside building experts to make sure the work is done properly and to hold the landlord accountable. These tenants deserve to live in a safe and habitable building and we won’t stop fighting until they get that.”
 
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About New Settlement Apartments’ Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA)

Community Action for Safe Apartments (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’ Tenant Rights Coalition

Bronx Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition, 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 110,000 New Yorkers annually. The work of Bronx Legal Services’ Tenant Rights Coalition is funded by NYC Human Resources Administration’s Anti-Harassment and Tenant Protection program.