Advocacy for Tenant and Community Empowerment: Reflections on My First Year in Practice

Abstract

In May 2009, the landlord of a rent-stabilized building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn openly declared his intention to force out the current tenants if they did not leave on their own. Located on North 8th Street right off trendy Bedford Avenue, the property was prime real estate in Williamsburg. The only obstacles that stood between the landlord and the potential for him to reap large profits were the rent-stabilized status of the building and all the tenants who paid the regulated rent, a fraction of the market rate. Once he forced those tenants to leave, he could “gut rehab” the apartments, move them out of the rent-stabilization system, and easily generate five to six times the amount of revenue from the building. The tenants, however, refused to walk away from their homes. So the landlord decided to take matters into his own hands: in June 2009, he illegally excavated a portion of the building’s foundation, removing a chunk of the cellar wall. His unauthorized work, done without requisite permits or prior City approval, compromised the structural stability of the entire building. That immediately prompted the City to vacate the building for safety reasons. To ensure that the tenants could not return to their apartments, even if the City later lifted its vacate order, the landlord then shut off all sewage, gas, water, and electrical services in the building, and padlocked the front door. In a matter of days, all six tenants in one building on North 8th Street had lost their homes. One of the tenants had lived in her apartment for over thirty years and raised her family there. Another lived with her husband and two young children. With no more than a couple days’ notice, all of them had to leave their apartments and belongings behind, indefinitely.