Tenants Fight Eviction on Bergen Street
A Prospect Heights block party yesterday had homemade food, loud music and a louder message: Good neighbors do not evict neighbors. The Fifth Avenue Committee-organized event was aimed at drawing attention to the plight of four rent-stabilized tenants facing eviction from 533 Bergen Street, and it highlighted bubbling tensions over affordable housing, gentrification and Atlantic…
A Prospect Heights block party yesterday had homemade food, loud music and a louder message: Good neighbors do not evict neighbors. The Fifth Avenue Committee-organized event was aimed at drawing attention to the plight of four rent-stabilized tenants facing eviction from 533 Bergen Street, and it highlighted bubbling tensions over affordable housing, gentrification and Atlantic Yards. Councilmember Letitia James, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and various activists spoke in support of the longtime tenants, who are fighting lawsuits from 533 Bergen’s new owners. The two couples that bought the building last year—Dan Bailey and Felicity Loughrey, along with Deanne Cheuk and Andre Wiesmayr—claim they want to evict the tenants because Bailey and Loughrey intend to construct a triplex for themselves out of the units. Under current laws, landlords of rent-stabilized buildings are allowed to evict tenants if they plan to live in the units themselves.
Most speakers called for reforming rent-regulation laws and maintaining affordability for low-income residents. Rents in Prospect Heights are increasingly beyond the means of most working-class families, said Councilmember James. We must preserve this community’s diversity. James and Senator Montgomery both characterized the push to evict 533 Bergen’s tenants as secondary displacement from Atlantic Yards. Brent Meltzer, a lawyer with South Brooklyn Legal Services who is representing one of the tenants, noted that if the landlords succeed with the evictions, 3,500 square feet that four families live in will be given over to just one family. The most basic articulation of the situation, however, came from Rosa Negron, one of 533 Bergen’s residents: How you going to evict people who’ve been living here all these years?
3:48 – anyone who gives out too much personal info on these threads gets bashed. Of course you’re thrilled you have a rent controlled apt. Anyone would be and would snap it up in a second. It’s ridiculous to feel you need to apologize for it. And I think it would be pretty damn hard to save up the 70-80,000 (or even 35,000) you need for a deposit on a $350/400,000 apt on a $100,000/year salary with a child and stay-at-home spouse – unless – as people so often do and conveniently don’t mention it – you can get a loan/gift from parents.
Hi 3:28. There’s no “plus” on the $100,000, it’s just $100,000 (I guess that’s the lowest of the six figures). Do you and your girlfriend have a kid? I don’t mean that as a challenge, but I’d ask you to consider how that really does change the overall financial picture (the cost of childcare vs having a parent at home, medical bills, diapers, etc.) I totally cop to having made both convienient and short-sighted choices in the past (should have bought when I was single and prices were still relatively low), but I’m trying to mend my ways! You know what’s funny? In other threads, I’ve gotten bashed as being a low-income shithole dweller who didn’t have the right to an opinion because I wasn’t a big enoungh player to be in the game, yet here I get the feeling I make a decent amount of money. It’s hard to keep perspective sometimes, reading about million dollar studio apartments. But based on this, I’ll take another look at what mght be possible for me and my family.
3.13
YOU are the person who tried to come off as morally superior, calling these owners “heartless” and “selfish” for simply exerting their rights under the law.
Yes, they bought a building with renters in it. They also assumed that the law would be upheld, and that law gives them the right to evict these renters if they are going to occupy the building.
For following the law in both its spirit and letter, they are labelled as such by you and these demagogue politicians.
1:17 here. Listen, you’re no exception to bills/insurances/utilites/whatnots…I can’t seem to fathom how 100K+/yr cannot afford decent 2br unit Kensington/Midwood/Bay Ridge (somewhere $350-400K) even on today’s CRAZY market. My gf & I barely make 80K combined but we feel confident that we can hold down $350K unit comfortably together and she’s an artist as well. Obviously you and yr partner made different but rather convenient & short-sighted choices. But, I’m just not buying your rationale/story for needing rent subsidy and how you can’t afford anything with 100k+/yr.
1:55,
There are programs for middle income wage earners like “Officer/Teacher Next Door” which allows Cops, CO’s and teachers to purchase rehabbed homes throughout the city and outlying areas for 50% of their market value. HUD also has programs for other civil servants and other average joes(that would not be you Ms. low six figure maker in stablized apt!) with similar terms. Neighborhood Housing Services(NHS) and HPD have programs as well. I have friends who purchased through one or the other of these programs. They all had to diligently track listings on the websites and put in numerous bids or lottery applications but they eventually got something. We need more of these programs but home ownership is definitely possible especially if you are willing make sacrifices. Sometimes that might mean being a “pioneer.”
I am the poster from 10:32. Regarding the person with the “go to Iran” comment, calm down. I said nothing like there should be some kind of theocratic courts of morals. I just hope that the owners, and people like them, don’t go about their legal, free market evicting process with the self-righteous zeal that some here seem to want to apply to the uglier side of capitalism.
And again, nobody forced these renters into somebody’s private house – the owners chose to buy a building that already had people living in it. People shouldn’t be celebrating the evictions like the owners are somehow doing God’s work to further the end of rent control. The tone on this site is that the owers are actually morally superior for what they are doing. And in this case, the owners are reducing the housing supply, not increasing it, with their actions — so the argument that rent decontrol leads to more housing does not apply here.
Thanks for the thoughts everyone. We’ll take a look at some of those Hudson Valley commuter towns.
There are many areas in NYC where one could live on a budget (Qns, SI, BX). It may not be fashionable but you can still get to and from work and have an opportunity to save for your own place.
Don’t knock Poughkeepsie. It’s affordable, not too far out of the city, has some lovely areas, and is quite commutable. Not another universe. You’d be surprised how many people make that commute daily, and afford the house, the kids, the school and the commute on a middle class income.