Outside of Signature Bank’s headquarters in Midtown, tenants marched, chanted and held signs decrying their lending practices to bad landlords.
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | The chill in the morning air matched the cold shoulder that Signature Bank tried to give protestors — tenants and elected officials fed up with their lending to landlords who intimidate and harass — on December 15, when a representative threatened to call the police.
The representative did not give his name, but told the group that they could not rally on Signature’s property, the sidewalk in front of its corporate headquarters at 565 Fifth Ave. near 46th St. in Midtown.
“It may be your property, but it’s a public sidewalk,” Assemblymember Richard Gottfried said he told him.
After the kerfuffle, Gottfried, Councilmember Corey Johnson, tenants of 222-224 W. 21st St. and 457 15th St. in Park Slope marched, chanted and held signs that condemned the bank’s lending practices. State Senator Brad Hoylman also joined later.
A man, security for the bank, stood watchful the entire rally.
Signature Bank has funded projects of Slate Property Group, a relatively new real estate venture that bought 222-224 W. 21st St. in Chelsea earlier this year. After Slate took over the building, tenants were served eviction notices and extensive construction began.
Dust flew, services such as water and gas were disrupted, a water pipe burst and flooded a closet, bed bugs abounded, storage was taken away, the front door was left open, and locks were changed without proper notification. W. 21st St. resident Cher Elyse Carden told Chelsea Now, which has reported extensively on Slate’s treatment of its tenants. A rally was held in August on the steps of her building, to protest Slate’s tactics.
The tenants still do not have gas, a service that was shut off Aug. 25, said Carden.
“I wake up every day with a deep sense of uncertainty,” she told the crowd at the rally. “It’s not fair to have to live like this.”
Carden, a cancer survivor, told Chelsea Now when she gave a tour of the building in November, that the construction and upheaval has caused sneezing, coughing, a lot of pain and inflammation.
“I used to walk with pepper spray up and down the stairs,” she said because of the building’s security issues.
Out of the 23 original tenants that were in the building, only four remain, said Andrew Rai, another tenant — who noted that tenants have been harassed and intimidated to move out, and their lives have been disrupted. There wasn’t a buzzer for at least two and a half months — and the constant construction, with its earsplitting noise, drove some tenants away, he said.
“Today is about standing up for tenants, long-term residents in Chelsea who have been really raked over the coals. Anyone who would have to live through the experience that these folks have lived through would be out here as well on a cold December morning,” Johnson told Chelsea Now.
Johnson said the rally was about solidarity with tenants in Chelsea and sending a message to the bank that it is working with bad actors “that are really hurting people.”
“Enough is enough. Signature should stop doing business with Slate and these companies,” he told those gathered.
Chelsea Now asked a Signature Bank spokesperson about the representative and the rally and was told that the bank “cannot comment on client matters.”
Public advocate Letitia James recently released her 100 Worst Landlord list and is also investigating the banks that lend to them. The Association of Neighborhood and Housing Development has been looking into this issue, and Signature Bank is on its list.
Chants of “Shame on Signature,” “Hold Banks Accountable,” “Save Affordable Housing” and “Save Our Homes” were heard while protesters walked back and forth in front of the bank. They held brightly colored signs with slogans like “Protect Tenant Rights,” “Landlord Intimidation Must Stop,” and “Signature Banks Lends To Bad Landlords.”
Slate bought the building at 457 15th St. in Park Slope in October and residents reached out the Chelsea tenants, said Theodore Brooke, who has lived there for 14 years.
Brooke said that they were notified of the sale with a flyer that was stuffed in their mailbox. A video camera was put in the lobby and Slate has been requesting information from residents, said Brooke.
Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and State Senator Brad Hoylman (first and second from left) have shown support for the tenants of 222-224 W. 21st St. City Councilmember Corey Johnson (not pictured) also attended the Dec. 15 rally.
“We’ve been working with the tenants to try to save their homes and bring the buildings under rent stabilization as it should be,” said Gottfried. “We’re here to appeal to the bank as the mortgage holder that they have got a responsibility here. They have power and influence to have this landlord do the right thing and protect these homes and protect the community that the bank is an investor in.”
Betsy Eichel, an organizer with nonprofit Housing Conservation Coordinators (HHC), said her organization is trying to ensure that the Chelsea tenants can stay in their apartments.
Initially, she said, Slate tried to evict all residents.
“They were largely successful with that,” said Eichel. “They were able to get a lot of people to leave.”
A lawyer with HHC filed what is called an HP, or housing part, in housing court in Manhattan, to compel Slate to turn the gas back on. They have until the end of the month to do so or they will be fined, said Eichel in a phone interview later.
At one time, the building was rent stabilized but is no longer, said Eichel, and so Slate is not obligated to renew anyone’s lease. Slate did sue the tenants to evict them, she said, but the tenants beat that and can stay.
Hoylman said that he would like to see stronger provision protecting tenants from landlord harassment, providing them with legal council, and making certain that landlords don’t take tenants to housing court on baseless charges. There are a number of bills on the table, he said, but the climate in Albany is challenging as Republicans now formally control the state senate.
“The community and government officials need to start putting pressure on irresponsible lending by banks to real estate speculators who are promising high returns to investors that result in harassment, baseless legal actions and other tactics to force rent regulated tenants out of their homes,” said Hoylman. “And this is happening on 21st Street, and frankly, all across the city.”
“It’s not just an individual issue, it’s a very broad issue,” said Rai, who was born and raised in Chelsea and has seen the neighborhood change. “For me, this fight is more for the future generations and what kind of example we want to set in terms of society for our children and our grandchildren. Do we set up a mentality of apartheid? This is social apartheid.”
