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Brooklyn Landlords Continue To Sabotage Rent-Stabilized Apartments
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 7, 2014
Modified Mar 7, 2014
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 7, 2014
Modified Mar 7, 2014
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Once again, a Brooklyn landlord has been accused of destroying a rent-stabilized apartment in hopes of ousting a tenant: a woman says her Bushwick landlord brought a wrecking crew into her apartment, destroying the unit in an ostensible effort to push her out.
CBS News reports that Silveria Hormigo, who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment at 324 Central Ave with her four children, was vacated from her unit last week without warning. Her landlord, Aaron Israel, reportedly brought in crews that demolished her bathroom and kitchen. "They didn’t warn me of anything; they didn’t’ advise me of anything," Hormigo, who was permitted by a judge to return to her apartment yesterday, told the station. Upon her return, she also noted that her children's beds had been removed from the apartment, and a giant hole had been drilled right through to the apartment next door, the dust sickening her neighbor.
Israel and his brother, Joel Israel, have been accused of attempting to oust rent-stabilized tenants before, and a Gothamist report last month focused on a tenant in Greenpoint who believed the landlords had taken an axe to the building's boilers, water heater and electrical systems in an effort to force her and her neighbors out and charge more for non-stabilized space. That building, 300 Nassau Ave, has since been deemed uninhabitable by the city.
And earlier this week, tenants in Joel Israel's building on Linden Street in Bushwick said their apartments had been gutted and deemed uninhabitable as well. Public Advocate Tish James says it's time for the city to crack down. "Joel Israel is one of the worst landlords in the city,” she told NBC News. “I won't let these families go to court without my support. We will make sure they are in appropriate safe housing.”
Tagged
apartment
gentrification
joel and aaron israel
landlords
sabotage
slumlords
Rebecca Fishbein
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