June 7, 2012, Brooklyn, NY—Residents of 665 New York
Avenue gathered today to announce a lawsuit against their landlord for failing
to make necessary repairs, resulting in unsafe, unsanitary, and uninhabitable
apartments. South Brooklyn Legal Services (SBLS, a program of Legal Services
NYC) filed the suit on behalf of 21 rent-stabilized tenants in an effort to
compel the landlord, Urban American Management, to take responsibility for the dilapidated
property.
View coverage here: NY1, News 12
Most of the tenants named in the lawsuit are long-time residents of the building, and all of them pay rent every month. Even so, under the ownership of Urban American, they have suffered countless unsanitary and dangerous conditions in their apartments and in the public spaces of the building. The New York City Housing Preservation Department currently lists 52 open violations at the property, including four C (“immediately hazardous”) violations.
Exterior doors as well as front doors to many apartments have broken locks. Paint and plaster crumbles from the walls, mold and mildew spread unchecked, and roaches and other vermin run rampant. In a fourth floor apartment, a gaping hole remains where an air conditioner once was. On the seventh floor, a senior citizen is essentially stranded in her home numerous days out of each month when the elevator breaks down.
Thurston Williams has lived in his apartment for 30 years and is the president of the building’s Tenant Association. “Since Urban American took over ownership of this building, we have lived with conditions that threaten our health and safety,” he said. “For example, rain comes into the apartments through unsealed windows and radiators. Waterbugs and rodents come in through vents and cracks. Many tenants have waited years, even decades, to have their apartments painted. None of the bells are working on the apartment doors. And when we call for emergency repair services, no one returns the call. These are just a few of the problems we are having.”
“We are organizing in seven Urban American developments throughout the city and in all of them, we see bad conditions,” said Katie Goldstein of Tenants & Neighbors, which has been working with the Tenant Association in an effort to get the conditions fixed. “The tenants at 665 New York Avenue have come together in a unified response to correct these repairs and services through a collective court case. These long-term rent-stabilized residents of Flatbush deserve better treatment.”
“These tenants have asked Urban American again and again to make repairs as required under their leases and by the law but Urban American has not,” said Hans Wetzel, a volunteer attorney at SBLS. “By bringing this lawsuit, the tenants seek only to force Urban American to make the repairs they are already obligated to perform— repairs that a conscientious landlord would have made without being forced to by the courts.”
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