Inwood Tenants To Sue Landlord For Neglecting Repairs

INWOOD, NY — Inwood residents and housing activists gathered in front of a three-building apartment complex Wednesday night to demand that their landlord make "overdue and urgent" repairs.

The building conditions at 24, 28 and 32 Arden St. — between Nagle and Sherman avenues — have steadily deteriorated year after year but have rapidly gotten worse since the buildings were purchased by a new landlord in 2016, 40-year-old resident Sheffer Moreno told Patch.

Moreno, who has lived in 24 Arden St. for 24 years, said that years of patchwork fixes instead of substantial repairs have led to numerous mounting problems at the apartment complex. Moreno and his friends loved growing up in the building, but the recent conditions have become sad, he told Patch.

"The problem is not the building, it's the landlord and the super," Moreno said. "The building is a great building, I grew up here and I made it OK. Me and my friends made it OK, we all made it OK in here. So the problem is they need to do more repairs."

Building residents are living with problems such as mold, parts of the building collapsing, bad heat and hot water systems in the winter, drainage problems, poor insulation and leaky roofs, Moreno said. Moreno is personally dealing with mold that has been in his sink for two years, he said. Despite the deteriorating living conditions, rent in the building continues to rise, Moreno told Patch.

"It's sad that in the United States, in New York City, we live like this," Moreno said. "Because when I go to visit my friends downtown, they don't have this problem."

Claudette Ortiz, a 52-year resident of 32 Arden St., told Patch she believes the landlord is trying to force her out of her apartment. Despite dangerous living conditions, Ortiz said that she will not leave her apartment. She is a third-generation resident of 32 Arden St., and both her mother and grandmother lived in the building until their deaths.

Ortiz's apartment is located directly on top of the building's boiler room, so construction dust and chemicals have begun seeping into her apartment, she told Patch. Ortiz is also dealing with sewage and mold in her kitchen, which forces her took cook at her sister's apartment blocks away.

"They're trying to get me out of my apartment so they can raise the rent," Ortiz said. "They offered me money, they offered to relocate me, and I said, 'No, I'm not leaving, this is my home, you have no right to try to kick me out,' so they keep harassing me."

In order to force the landlord to make necessary repairs, building tenants are taking their landlord to court. Real estate investor Shaul Kopelowitz purchased the three-building complex in March 2016 for $12 million under the entity 24 Arden LLC, according to public real estate records. While the LLC company is listed as the official owner of the building, Kopelowitz signed documents as the buyer, according to records.

The Urban Justice Center will represent tenants of 24, 28 and 32 Arden St. in their case against Kopelowitz. The tenants' demands are simple: make needed repairs and fix unsafe conditions.

"Too often, tenants in rent-regulated apartments never get the repairs they need because landlords want to push out tenants or only care about their bottom line," Jane Li, a lawyer with the Urban Justice Center, said in a statement. "Shaul Kopelowitz has acquired dozens of buildings in Upper Manhattan and tenants in those properties have also complained about a lack of repairs."

Activists from the Metropolitan Council on Housing spoke during Wednesday's rally and connected the problems residents of 24, 28 and 32 Arden St. are facing to increased real estate speculation in the neighborhood. Speculation is on the rise due to a city rezoning initiative the neighborhood, activists said.

A rezoning of Inwood would bring greater residential density to the neighborhood, which has increased land values and provided an incentive for landlords to harass tenants, activists said.

"We've seen an increase of landlord harassment cases as the Inwood rezoning inches forward. It is more important now than ever to unite among tenants," Metropolitan Council on Housing organizer Laura Peñaranda said in a statement.

Photos by Patch