BY EILEEN STUKANE | Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is unafraid to become a lightning rod in her commitment to confront property owners who drive rent-regulated tenants from their homes by conducting renovations without the required Tenant Protection Plan (TPP) in place. On Tues., Jan. 10, Brewer teamed up with Stand for Tenant Safety (STS), a Lower East Side-based tenants’ rights/legal services coalition, for a town hall meeting in a packed auditorium within the Municipal Building at 1 Centre St.
The frustration of a few hundred people was palpable in the room — a frustration mostly directed at the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) for its lack of interest in changing its culture. Brandon Kielbasa of STS asked for examples of construction as harassment from the audience.
Many of the issues expressed had been heard before, and are ongoing. Audience members spoke of gas shutoffs, front doors and windows being removed, jackhammering causing cracks in, and collapse of, drywall, and toxic dust in the air. A number of people spoke about the DOB’s self-certification process, whereby a building can acquire a permit by falsely stating a building is “unoccupied” when it is indeed “occupied” and requires a TPP. As reported last year in Chelsea Now, Brewer herself was appalled by the frequent gas shutoffs initiated by landlords who seemed to have no concern about creating hazardous conditions in people’s homes. She took action by contacting Con Edison, NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the NYC Commissioners of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the DOB, and the New York State Public Service Commission, and Homes and Community Renewal (which is a stage agency).
Twenty elected officials were co-sponsors of the town hall, and 10 sent representatives. Working in cooperation with the STS, 11 councilmembers who were among the town hall co-sponsors are involved in shepherding a package of 12 bills into law. These bills would force the DOB to overhaul its penalty system for violations, and to take on more oversight of TPPs and the issuing of permits. An update of how the bills are moving through the City Council is below.
Kielbasa spoke about construction as harassment affecting mostly rent-regulated apartments: “The landlords create an unsafe space around you under the guise of construction work and say, ‘This isn’t our fault. We’re trying to do this as fast as we can.’ A landlord will buy a building and chase out as many rent-regulated tenants as he can through lawsuits and buyouts. This is the acquisition stage of ownership,” he said. “Then they transition quickly to the renovation stage, where they use construction as harassment to lean on tenants who know their rights and understand the importance of having their rent regulated apartments.” Kielbasa further explained that this “violent and tormenting” form of harassment may last from three months to a year, depending on the extent of construction, until the landlord moves into the marketing phase of moving in new market-rate tenants.
WHEN IT’S A FIGHT TO SAVE YOUR HOME | A stellar panel of activists was prepared to offer ideas and counsel to the community. On the dais was Yonatan Tadele, an organizer for the Cooper Square Committee; Marti Weithman, a supervising attorney for MFY Legal Services, Inc.; Kerri White, director of organizing, policy and research at Urban Homesteading Assistance Board; and George Tzannes, a Lower East Side/East Village tenant leader.
Henry Dembrowski, a resident of Soho who was subject to long-term construction as harassment by his landlord, Marolda Properties, recalled coming home one night in the wee hours of the morning to his residence at 57 Spring St., only to find the front door of the building locked. He could only get into his apartment by going through the basement access of the bakery next door, climbing up the fire escape in the back of the building, and entering through one of his windows. That was only the beginning. What followed was a loss of power for 10 days, the installation of pipes that ran all night and resulted in the collapse of a wall, and holes poked in his ceiling and walls.
The advice from Dembrowski was simple: “Organize,” he said, and warned against trying to take the landlord on alone, because there is much more power in getting people together. When Dembrowski began speaking with his neighbors, he was able to create a coalition of buildings in the neighborhood. Eventually, he prevailed in HPD court. “Construction as harassment is a poison in our city and we need to group together and work together, through legislation and bills,” he said.
Holly Slayton, an East Village resident, spoke of the Toledano Tenants Coalition (of which she is a member), that has organized to fight Brookhill Properties.
“They pushed out my business and 21 of 24 businesses in the neighborhood,” Slayton said of Brookhill. “Three of the buildings have dust issues, and my doctor advised me and my daughter to wear dust masks in our own apartment.” She explained that Healthy Homes, part of the NY State Department of Health, finally came and got a lead dust sample. “DOB has a billion dollars in fines due to them. They need to put liens on these buildings; take some action. And it is up to us to speak out,” said Slayton. She encouraged everyone to sign contact information cards so that they could be part of ongoing activism.
THE 12-BILL PACKAGE | Rolando Guzman, deputy director of community preservation at St. Nicks Alliance in Brooklyn, gave an update on the 12-bill package, a “Legislative Platform to Reform DOB,” working its way through the City Council. He noted that the first bill on the list would require DOB to inspect at-risk buildings instead of allowing for self-certification, which is a prevalent complaint among tenants. More information on the 12-Bill Package can be found on the STS website: standfortenantsafety.com/sts-dob-platform.
Guzman explained that the 12 bills were introduced to the City Council in September 2015. The bills first go to the Council’s Housing Committee where they are given hearings. After the hearings, the bills go to the full Council for a vote. If the Council gives the go-ahead, the bills go to the Mayor’s Office to be signed into law. Right now seven bills have had hearings. “We are working with some councilmembers to have hearings on the remaining five bills, and we hope that within the next month they should be voted on and passed,” Guzman said.
A FIRST FOR COMMUNITY BOARDS | Loraine Brown, a co-chair of Community Board 8’s Housing Committee, told Chelsea Now of a groundbreaking gathering of all 12 Manhattan Community Boards, to which the public is invited. “We’re convening all Manhattan Community Boards, the Land Use and Housing Committee members, to meet and discuss the affordable housing program,” Brown noted. “We want to come together to create guidelines that we can all use, and to develop the ‘ask’— what we ask of developers in terms of permanent affordable housing versus temporary, and keeping the 421A units in our borough.”
This will be the first time all Manhattan Community Board Committees have ever come together with the public to share ideas. The gathering will be on Tues., Jan. 31, 6:30 p.m. at the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center (415 E. 93rd St.).
