Grassroots of Change

2006-09-19 00:00:00

Seeds of a Revolution

Tenants come together and agree to form a Tenants Association. The tenants also agree to withhold their rents and deposit it in the Tenants Association Escrow account. Three individual tenant associations in three buildings were formed and Tenant Leaders were elected including three treasurers who will deposit tenant's rents in Escrow.

2006-10-01 00:00:00

The Revolt

Tenants file an HP Action in Housing Court to force the owner to make repairs. The owner failed to appear in Court. Tenants hold their monthly association meetings.

2006-11-01 00:00:00

Out of the Shadows

A lawsuit is filed in the State Supreme Court to address the illegal rents and missing security deposits. Tenants hold their monthly tenants associations meetings. Tenants call 311 to report housing code violations.

2006-12-01 00:00:00

December 2006

Tenants file a petition (Article 7A) in Housing Court to remove the landlord from managing the properties. The owner indicates to the Courts that he will not make any repairs unless he is able to collect rent. Landlord hires Citadel Management to manage the buildings. A super was finally hired after five years. Tenants hold their monthly association meetings and continue to call 311.

2007-01-01 19:02:26

January 2007

Tenants work with NYPD 32 Precinct to remove vagrants in the crack house located in the basement storage room. Tenants continue to call 311. Tenants with the help of Assembly Member Keith Wright and Denny Farrell initiate a press conference to call on the owner to make repairs.

2007-02-01 03:30:06

February 2007

NYC Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) deploys a contractor due to the many violations placed for the lack of heat and hot water. The Superintendent refuses to provide access to the boiler room and tenants called 911. The superintendant was forced to open the boiler room until the contractor finishes repairing the boiler. Tenants call 311 to force HPD to make emergency repairs. The evening of February 13, 2007, a day away from the next court hearing, a fire is set on a steam pipe located in the courtyard. The fire caused the boiler to crack. As a result, the Hon. Judge Badillo issues an access warrant to allow HPD to repair the boiler. The Fire Marshall inspects the ruins from the fire and determines it was arson. The Court case is then transferred to Judge Jackman-Brown.

2007-03-01 03:30:06

March 2007

Housing Court Judge Jackman-Brown visits the buildings at 225 and 235 West 146 Street and representatives from NYS Assembly members Keith Wright and Danny Farrell join the 'walk-through' with the Judge. The 7A Trial proceedings begin and Judge Jackman- Brown orders tenants to open their doors to licensed contractors to inspect the plumbing electrical and lead-paint conditions in all three buildings. Contractors did not appear at 301 West 141 Street and tenants wait all day for them to arrive. Later during the month, the Courts orders lead, electric and plumbing conditions to be re-inspected.

2007-04-01 03:30:06

April 2007

The Courts issued order for the landlord Court to repair in five apartments. Repairs begin and NYC Department of Buildings takes the landlord to Court as a result of the many violations placed in the building. Judge Jackman Brown visits the building April 12 to assess the quality of the repairs the day before the next Court hearing. During the April 13 hearing, the Judge admonishes Citadel for poor repairs. Items noted; no work in 3 out of 5 apartments; poor paint job; leak still exists. The owner is to make the repairs again and the tenants are ordered to provide access from Monday-Saturday 9:OOam-5:OOpm. As a result, Citadel workers gut-out a lead-based paint hazard apartment and discard the debris through the window. The tenants call 311 and an inspector from the NYC Department of Buildings visits the building and issues a stop work order. Inspectors from HPD and the department of Health also visited the building to inspect the repairs and instruct the workers to clean after the mess they have created in individual apartments, Tenants also contact Washington, D.C. to report their broken mailboxes.

2007-05-01 21:05:05

May 2007

Tenants celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the neighborhood garden. Days later, the owner fails to address a gas leak from a vacant apartment until the tenants called 911. The tenants petition the Courts for a summary judgment which is denied. Judge Jackman-Brown re-inspects the repairs in the building in person. Amsterdam News May issue publish the tenants plight that angers Judge Jackman-Brown.

2007-08-01 21:05:05

August 2007

In an effort to stop the 7A proceedings, the landlord files for Bankruptcy. The tenants' court case is put on hold.

2007-10-01 21:05:05

October 2007

Bankruptcy court lifts the stay on the tenants' court case in Housing Court. Trial continues in Housing Court with tenants testifying about the conditions in their apartments. At the October 26 trial, the landlord appears with his Rabi to ‘unofficially' address the courts. Other characters appeared to claim that they met with the tenant association president, Elsia Vasquez. The bedbug infestation can no longer be tolerated. Tenants hire exterminator and pay for the fumigation with monies they have in Escrow.

2007-11-01 21:05:05

November 2007

HPD has recorded 1,501 violations in the three buildings. The Superintendant looking to stay at the building confesses to the TA president that he was instructed to 'stretch' the small amount of oil the buildings. He was also asked to look for another job and to move his family from the building.

2007-12-01 21:05:05

December 2007

Judge Jackman Brown asks the owner to present potential property managers who will make the repairs and can't make a decision because the tenants are able to identify one of the 'potential property managers' as the previous landlord of 301 West 141 Street. On December 18, 2007, the three buildings were entered in HPD's 7A Program. Judge Jackman-Brown stripped Mr. Zinner of his management rights due to his non-cooperation both in completing the repairs and not appearing in court. On Friday, December 22, the tenants hold a celebration party in the apartment where all of the monthly tenant meetings were held.

2008-01-01 21:05:05

January 2008

The 7A Administrator visits the building with the NYPD and locksmith. The superintendent is served his very much awaited holdover petition and the locks to all vacant apartments are changed. Tenants were provided with new keys to the front door of their respective buildings. The landlord is not allowed to visit or enter the buildings. The materials for the rehabilitation are ordered along with new boilers with the monies tenants held on Escrow- $490,000+.

2008-05-01 21:05:05

May 2008

The tenants celebrate cultural diversity through 'Cinco de Mayo' with representatives from HPD, NYPD and NYS Assembly Member Keith Wright.

2008-07-01 21:05:05

July 2008

The tenants were commissioned with a great task. The contractors were going to begin a massive construction project the magnitude of which would require that an entire wing of the building be emptied out. The project would include a complete gutting-out of all apartments, rewiring, re-piping, and re-walling of 23 apartment units. This is not the type of work in which you could "work around" the tenants. The families on this entire side would have to be relocated to other vacant apartments on the adjacent wing of the building as well as the apartments in the building next to it and at 301 W. 141st Street. The first step was finding out matching apartments to fit the various family sizes. The next step involved making sure these temporary apartments was in livable shape. The final and most difficult step was the move itself! Some families had the bodies to move their own stuff. Many more either didn't have family members to help or were too elderly to undertake such a task. A group of volunteers from among our own tenants helped with the relocation moves- an extraordinary picture of coordination and compassion that only reinforced the unity that has gotten the tenants this far.

2008-08-01 21:05:05

August 2008

The buildings receive a new boiler. Our problems with heat and hot water are now long gone. The legal rents to our apartments are registered with DHCR (Department of Housing and Community Renewal). The so-called new landlords have fought the 7A Administrator on this but our legal rents have finally been established.

2009-01-01 07:35:39

January 2009

At the tenant's association meeting, families are informed that those that are relocated will soon return to their newly rehabilitated apartments. They should begin to pack!

2009-02-01 04:32:32

Moving Foward

Thanks to the impressive collaborative efforts of HPD and the city's 7A Program the first wave of tenants are now moving into their repaired apartments. Words cannot express how grateful and ecstatic the tenants are and tenants continue to fight the so-called new landlord in Housing Court.

2009-05-01 04:32:32

May 2009

Brick work and the work on the parapet walls completed. Scaffolding is removed from the buildings at 225 and 235 West 146 Street. Tenants celebrate again and deliver a Cinco de Mayo Culture Festival with live cultural performances in partnership with local not for profit organizations and governmental agencies. The tenants graduated their piñata arts and crafts and delivered a large piñata that resembles their old landlord: Ilan Zinner. Community residents line up to beat the colorful piñatas including the one that resembles the landlord.

2010-06-01 00:00:00

Off the Beaten Path

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2011-06-01 00:00:00

It's Time

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2011-09-09 00:00:00

September 9th, 2011

Pa'Lante Harlem moves into former super's apartment as its new office.

Grassroots of Change

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