Crown Heights tenants rally against ‘dangerous living conditions’
Tenants at three buildings in Crown Heights, Brooklyn on Sunday rallied in protest against their “no-show landlord,” who, they claimed, has ignored “scores of building violations” and kept a number of units in the housing complex vacant, even in the face of tenant complaints.
According to Ritti Singh, communications organizer of Housing Justice for All, the three buildings are “in the portfolio of Rubin Dukler — 1018 Eastern Parkway, 1074 Eastern Parkway, 1392 Sterling Place — with the tenants at 1392 Sterling Place on rent strike since November 2021.
“Dukler died in January 2021, leaving the tenants in limbo and unable to get even the most serious safety concerns addressed from Iris Management, which ran maintenance before the owner of the building passed,” she said. “There are 159 open violations at 1074 Eastern Parkway currently on file, and 851 violations open across the three-building portfolio.
“Tenants have been unable to get even the most serious safety concerns addressed from Iris Management, which ran maintenance before the owner of the building passed,” Singh claimed. “The buildings are blighted with unsafe and filthy conditions, including a collapsing roof, mold, rotten flooring, rat infestations, flooding, and sewage overflows.”
Singh said longtime tenants are demanding to purchase their buildings and turn them into a co-operative.
At Sunday’s rally, tenants called for the passage of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), one of five bills on Housing Justice for All’s “Our Homes, Our Power platform”, which also includes Good Cause Eviction.
Singh said that, last year, tenants at a Bronx building “ousted an abusive landlord and bought out their building as a limited equity co-op.”
She said TOPA, sponsored by Sen. Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Marcela Mitayanes, would allow more tenants to follow suit by giving tenants more leverage to buy their own buildings and decide what happens to their homes.
Monique Roberts, tenant organizer at HOPE, told Caribbean Life on Tuesday that, across the board, there are “mold, leaks, rodents and insects; inconsistent heat or hot water in the winter; outdated electrical wiring; harassment; water/sewage back-up; broken intercom; patchwork that always needs to fixed; rent overcharge/succession rights issues; and [need for] roof replacement.”
She said tenants are demanding: A roof-to-cellar building inspection by a contractor/engineer approved by tenants identifies issues in apartments and building-wide; that tenants be presented with a comprehensive plan of repairs for the building, with specific proposals to mitigate each issue presented, from the source, as well as a schedule for the repairs; that tenants be presented with the license numbers and insurance for contractors who will be making the repairs; when tenants approve this plan, work can begin; and that when all
repairs are completed, the rent strike will end.
“Tenants are also demanding that management sell the buildings to the tenants, so they can run it themselves as a co-op,” Roberts said, adding that “two out three management entities are currently willing to sell.”
Michelle Stamp, one of the tenants at 1392 Sterling Place on rent strike, said tenants at the building have been on rent strike for 18 months.
She said tenants at 1074 Eastern Parkway have been on rent strike for five months and that tenants at 1018 Eastern Parkway joined the rally on Sunday.
“The rally on Sunday was to send a clear message to the owners/ management that we demand repairs,” Stamp told Caribbean Life. “We demand that they do the right thing. We want repairs now, and we want it to be done timely and professionally — no more patch-up, no more excuses. We are not paying until we get what we need.”
