Complaining of Rats, Mold and Rashes, Washington Heights Tenants Take Legal Action Against Their Landlord

Thayer Street tenants file a petition in housing court, demanding improved living conditions.

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By Lipaz Avigal

Dozens of tenants gathered on the steps of 78-86 Thayer Street in Washington Heights recently, demanding better living conditions. They cheered and chanted on behalf of the six tenants who’ve filed a petition in housing court against their landlord. 

The tenants’ petition seeks a finding of harassment and compensatory damages, attorney costs and fees, and punitive damages at the court’s discretion. It also includes an order to correct, demanding that their landlord, David Israeli, and managing agents, Joseph Noormand and Manuel Banaz, address dozens of housing violations in the building. 

Over the last several years, tenants have filed 39 complaints and 24 building violations with the city’s Department of Buildings, seeking repairs for everything from exposed electrical wires to crumbling ceilings. Of their complaints, only five remain active, according to the building’s Property Profile. Andrea Shapiro, director of programs and advocacy at the Metropolitan Council, a tenants’ rights organization, said that “often has to do with which inspector shows up.”

Yaneli Bejaran’s apartment has crumbling plaster and holes in the walls. (Photo by Yaneli Bejaran)

Yaneli Bejaran, 37, moved into the building in 2011. She said her apartment had deteriorated over time, resulting in mold, cracks and rats entering through holes in her walls, but she hasn’t gotten any response from Israeli. “He doesn’t care about the lives of the renters,” she said, “It’s inhumane.” 

Bejaran lives in a market-rate unit, meaning that the rent isn’t city regulated. In 2014, her $600 rent more than doubled to $1250. “Now it’s $1850,” she said. 

Bejaran’s living conditions are not an anomaly. Taking the microphone one by one, a dozen tenants described substandard living conditions.

“They turn off our water. They turn off our electricity. And they lie about it,” said Dorca Reynoso, one of the plaintiffs and a Met Council board member.

“One of the most pressing issues is infestations,” said Ellery Ireland, the attorney representing the tenants. The building has been infested with mice and cockroaches for years, he said. “In some apartments it’s rather severe.”

David Israeli, the building’s landlord, did not respond to a request for comment. Through 78-86 Thayer Street Corp., he bought the 1928 five-story co-op in bankruptcy court in 1988. Now, as the sole owner of most apartments, he’s been subletting to tenants for decades, operating the building as a co-op officially while running it as a landlord in practice.

Reynoso, appearing before the New York State legislature in support of the Good Cause Eviction bill in 2019, said that Israeli had doubled rents for all tenants in 2014, evicting those who could not pay. He then left those apartments empty, a practice known as warehousing, until most of the building stood vacant. Of its 62 available units, only 20 remain occupied, Reynoso said in an interview. 

Citywide, the number of vacant units not available for rent has been steadily increasing, jumping from 245,000 in 2017 to a record high of 353,400 last year, the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey shows. Last year, the survey found that 42,860 of the 353,400 unavailable units were rent stabilized. 

Tenants and supporters gather outside Thayer Street buildings to protest substandard living conditions. (Photo by Lipaz Avigal)

Charles McNally, director of external affairs at NYU Furman Center, explained the economic incentives. “If the landlord decides it’s going to cost more to renovate a unit than he’d be able to recoup in rent collected,” he said, “then he may make the decision to leave that unit vacant.” 

Even if an apartment is in good condition, landlords may avoid renting it for fear of complaints, code violations or housing court lawsuits. Not wanting to take the risk with a long-term tenant whose unit will inevitably require renovation, they keep apartments vacant.

Landlords may get “property tax benefits that would at least partially offset the loss of rental revenue,” McNally explained. The long-term strategy, however, remains unclear. “Maybe it’s to wait until the entire building is vacant,” he speculated. Once all tenants have left, landlords can renovate the entire building and offer all units at market rate. 

In her testimony, Reynoso said her neighbors live under constant fear of losing their homes. “We have built roots in this neighborhood,” she told legislators. “The anxiety of not knowing when we will face another rent hike or if we will be asked to vacate the apartment is maddening.”

Characterizing housing as a racial justice issue, she told the legislature that “black and brown people of color are being removed from their neighborhoods by wealthy and mainly white landlords.”

As demand for housing rises, tenants want warehousing stopped. “We keep saying we need to build more housing in NYC,” Reynoso said at the rally, “but this is not the only building in New York that’s vacant. We could have a lot of New Yorkers off the street.”  

Attorney Ireland said that warehousing and indecent living conditions violate regulations that local authorities are supposed to enforce. “It’s only allowed to happen because the authorities are not doing their job. I’m talking about HPD” – Department of Housing Preservation and Development, he said at the rally. “I’m talking about the Department of Buildings.”  

At the rally, state and city officials turned out to show support. State Sen. Robert Jackson said that he had received an 80-page document listing the Thayer Street buildings’ violations, leading him to back the tenants’ efforts. He encouraged them to “keep organizing together.”

 “It’s amazing there are so many tenants here to fight back,” said Nicole Krishtul, the strategic organizer for housing at the city comptroller’s office. “We know that there are tenants across the city who are afraid to.” 

(Featured photo by Lipaz Avigal)

 

 

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