'Slumlike Conditions' in Foreclosed Slope Building
The Daily News had an article on a group of tenants who live in 294 Fifth Avenue in the Slope and say conditions in the rent-controlled building have deteriorated since the property went into foreclosure a couple years ago and a receiver was appointed to take care of it. The building’s boiler, for example, didn’t…
The Daily News had an article on a group of tenants who live in 294 Fifth Avenue in the Slope and say conditions in the rent-controlled building have deteriorated since the property went into foreclosure a couple years ago and a receiver was appointed to take care of it. The building’s boiler, for example, didn’t work for three weeks this winter, and the front-door lock is broken. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio held a news conference yesterday to support the tenants in seeking a court order that would force the receiver to make repairs. According to the article: “The slumlike conditions at 294 Fifth Ave. spotlight a growing concern: smaller apartment buildings that fall into disrepair in part because the building is overleveraged. ‘We think this is a growing problem around the city that the banks and lenders are not taking responsibility for,’ said de Blasio.”
Park Slope Tenants, de Blasio Team Up to Force Building Repairs [NY Daily News]
Thank you, Br00klynGuy. The entire system of entitlements is a clusterfuck. None of it makes any economic sense, is administered poorly with MASSIVE waste and does nothing to actually help people with their lot in life. I think the perpetuating of the status quo through the children is the biggest shame.
legion- feeling paranoid? Because you know me. If I had meant to address you, I would have done so. I didn’t read DH’s comment as a reply to yours in particular- I read it as a generalized comment on landlord responsibilities. It was never addressed to, nor about you.
Paranoia- get help for it.
bfarwell, according to the article, her monthly rent IS $149.
“Anyone with a boatload of money wouldn’t live in a crap-ass building. Sure, a RC apartment, or a RS apartment, but not a slum. ”
Bfarwell;
How do you know that this building is a slum? I live around the corner from this building and it shows no sign of being a slum, as FSRG also said above.
As someone who has worked in property management in this city I can say a few things as fact.
Rent control is out-of-hand. It is one of the reasons market tenants pay so much on both ends, we pay more to the landlords to offset their low rent and we pay more to the .gov so they can shuffle money to those people to pay their already low rent (insanity) and why so many buildings are under-maintained. Someone here brought up that a tenant should not be treated any less for what they pay. That is absurd. Agree or not but being a landlord is providing a service. In ANY other service industry the level of service is commensurate with the level of pay. Why should this be any different? Because the people in question have permission from the .gov to pay less than everyone else? If it is too expensive to live somewhere, maybe you shouldn’t live there.
I don’t like to make sweeping generalizations but in some cases it is apt. People that live in these apartments usually live in squalor due in no part to anything the landlord does. Most of these apartments are covered in filth. Kitchens with black grease all over the walls. Food everywhere. Garbage piled up. A majority of them bordering on hoarding. 4 or 5 of them living in a 1BR. These people do not take care of themselves and expect the other people to do it for them and blame them when they don’t bend over backwards to cater to their every whim. It doesn’t stop at rent control. These people are usually on several different entitlement programs. They leach the system, do not contribute and worse, pass that behavior to their children. I know I sound cynical, but this is what I saw on a daily basis. Some people genuinely need the help but most just game the system like we go to work. People walk around with canes like fashion accessories, usually slung under their arm. They buy junk food at the bodega with their ebt cards while dropping another $100 on lottery tickets. It is disgusting the situations we perpetuate.
Just to clarify, I’m broke as shit. I’m not ragging on poor people. I do draw issues with those that can’t take care of themselves (even a little bit) and blame others for their problems. I also have HUGE issues with the system and how it just keeps feeding into rather than fixing some major fuckin problems. Blame the landlords, blame the banks but really the finger should be pointing elsewhere.
Who are you people who think $149 is no money?! That’s what, 1/3 of their monthly rent? Not everyone has 1/3 their rent casually sitting around.
a) Anyone with a boatload of money wouldn’t live in a crap-ass building. Sure, a RC apartment, or a RS apartment, but not a slum.
b) BS on the ‘normal renters pay to fix things and RS/C tenants don’t.’ Normal renters have no incentive to fix anything, because their rent could be increased as much as their LL wants if they fix it up, and also because they’re already paying a bunch of money, and are less likely to feel like they should throw more money after it. We tried to get our LL to let us renovate our shit-ass RS kitchen (he’d get a 8k value of kitchen and we’d pay 4k, since wife has connections to get cheap fixtures/etc.) and he wouldn’t do it.
c) They *ARE* entitled. That’s what the LL having a legal obligation to supply things means. That the tenants are ENTITLED to them. Zomg.
posted by bxgrl
“Yes it is, DH. But that doesn’t make a difference to some of these posters. They’re too busy foaming at the mouth over the horror of some elderly lady having a rent controlled apartment.”
bxgrl,
You responded to DH’s post regarding my statement about changing the locks.
Your response to his statement implied that I was being critical of an elderly lady for having a rent controlled apartment.
Reading comprehension 101.
Read it. Learn it. Live it.
“Water and words… Easy to pour impossible to recover.”