Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
On Staten Island, 2 months of back rent can end in eviction
By
David Brand
and
Karen Yi
Published Oct 10, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Photo by David Brand
By
David Brand
and
Karen Yi
Published Oct 10, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The owner of a large housing complex in New Dorp, Staten Island, is carrying out more evictions than any other landlord in the borough, with dozens of tenants — including many with rent subsidies — receiving removal notices over a few thousand dollars in missed payments.
Revona Properties — a subsidiary of the real estate behemoth Cammeby’s International Group — filed 169 eviction cases against tenants at Tysens Park Apartments since a statewide freeze on most removals ended in January 2022, according to records tracked by Gothamist. In at least 23 instances identified by Gothamist, the landlord took low-income tenants to court over portions of their rent that were supposed to be covered by a voucher administered by the Department of Social Services.
Revona is the largest landlord in a sliver of New Dorp with one of the city’s highest eviction rates. The company successfully evicted residents from at least 26 units at the sprawling 1,006-unit complex since the eviction pause was lifted.
Tenants and their advocates say the eight-building, mostly rent-stabilized complex along Mill Road and Ebbits Street has emerged as an eviction hotspot due to two related issues: a property manager with a quick-to-evict debt collection strategy and bureaucratic delays by the Department of Social Services in making timely rental payments to landlords.
Getting evicted? Here's what you need to know.
- Document conversations with your landlord and/or property owner
- Contact a tenants’ rights hotline or 311
- Organize with neighbors
For more information on what to do if you're facing an eviction and resources available, read more from Gothamist here.
A review of court records by Gothamist found tenants at Tysens Park who received eviction notices owed a median rent of $4,710 each — a total of nearly $900,000. Just 13 of the 169 households sued by Revona owed more than $9,000 at the time. Another 40 owed less than $3,500. Monthly rents at the complex range from around $900 for longtime residents in rent-stabilized units to about $2,500.
The mounting number of eviction filings at Tysens, and across the five boroughs, comes as the city's shelters population swells to record highs and as spiking rents deepen the city’s affordability crisis.
Revona declined an interview request, but a spokesperson said in a statement that the property management company tries to work with tenants to resolve payment issues before turning to the eviction process.
Limo driver Ricky Richardson, who’s facing eviction from the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife and 18-year-old son, said he owed nearly $5,000 when he received an eviction notice in June.
“You would think that this is about a hundred grand or something,” Richardson said. “It’s a small amount.”
Richardson said most of the back rent was supposed to get covered by the voucher program known as CityFHEPS. He said his family qualified for the subsidy after COVID depleted his health and his income.
“I just kept telling them, ‘Listen, you know, it's not my fault.’ It’s gonna come. I just don’t know when,” Richardson said of his conversations with Revona staff.
Evictions on the rise
City marshals have carried out more than 10,000 evictions across the city since the start of 2022 — a sizable number that nonetheless trails the years prior to the pandemic by a wide margin.
In 2019, marshals carried out around 17,000 evictions. There were -nearly 20,000 evictions in 2018 and about 21,000 in 2017 — roughly double the number of citywide removals since January of last year.
But Tysens Park — a complex developed by Fred Trump and owned by his son Donald Trump two decades ago — has already exceeded its pre-pandemic eviction rate. Marshals recorded a combined 25 removals there in 2018 and 2019, city records show, and have carried out at least 26 evictions since the start of 2022.
The eviction process can take many months, if tenants respond to court notices or find an attorney to represent them. The vast majority of cases do not end in a formal eviction; tenants and landlords generally reach financial settlements or the renter opts to leave well before the marshals arrive.
After unpaid rent mounted during the pandemic, New York City housing court remains the default debt collection system for landlords trying to get even small sums of missing money. Tenant advocates and some lawmakers say the city needs a new system for resolving payment problems that won’t lead to families becoming homeless.
“Many of the issues that are the basis for eviction proceedings are issues that could and should get resolved earlier so that people don't end up in a court of law, where if they make a mistake, they could end up losing their home,” said Andrew Scherer, the policy director at New York Law School’s Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law.
In the meantime, the City Council is also calling on DSS to at least make its payments on time to avoid the eviction process.
“The agency that is tasked with ensuring that people are not homeless is now contributing to the large number of people being threatened with eviction because of lack of payment,” said Councilmember Diana Ayala during a committee hearing in late September, where she raised alarm about delays in processing city voucher payments.
Ayala suggested the city work out an agreement with the courts to exempt tenants caught between bureaucratic errors and a landlord eager for the rent money.
“Landlords are not getting paid,” she said.
At least eight tenants told a judge their voucher payments weren’t being processed because the city was sending checks to an old Revona billing address, according to responses and settlements filed with the court.
The City Council passed a measure late last week requiring DSS to report on voucher payment problems.
DSS spokesperson Nicholas Jacobelli said the agency communicates with landlords and provides cash grants for CityFHEPS recipients facing eviction, but added that landlords are required to notify the agency of any mailing address changes.
“Landlords who receive rental subsidies administered by DSS do have certain responsibilities including providing the agency with up-to-date payment and contact info so we can ensure timely and accurate payments,” Jacobelli said. “We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to help preserve housing stability for vulnerable tenants while ensuring they have access to key supports.”
‘In limbo’
The city eventually issued the missing checks to cover most of Richardson’s back rent, but he said he is withholding about $2,500 of the portion he’s supposed to pay until the landlord addresses a mouse infestation and the odor emanating from the overflowing trash chute next door. His eviction case is still ongoing.
Jade Rodriguez, 22, owed around $4,700 — less than three months rent — when Revona started eviction proceedings in December of last year. She told the court she was also missing CityFHEPS voucher payments.
“I'm worried about them making a decision on me leaving when it's not my fault, and then I have an eviction on my record for however long, when it's really not me,” Rodriguez said. “I pay my portion and I paid on time.”
Rodriguez said she’s been fighting with the city and the landlord for nearly a year over whether she’ll be able to stay with her 2-year-old son in their two-bedroom apartment.
“I'm just in limbo here,” she said. “I don't know whether I'm staying or going.”
One tenant with a CityFHEPS problem owed under $2,100, or less than a month and half of their rent, while another owed about $1,600, according to the eviction paperwork Revona filed.
Gothamist also found at least one tenant who was evicted after telling a judge she was struggling to get the city to reissue her voucher payments, according to the housing court filing. City records show a marshal removed her in February. She did not respond to phone calls for this story.
“If, after repeated attempts, we’re unable to reach a resolution directly with the resident, we may have no choice but to solicit help from the courts in determining a path forward.” Revona said in an emailed statement. “Ultimately, every effort is made to keep residents in their homes while ensuring sufficient rent collection to facilitate property maintenance and upkeep. Any proceeding involving eviction is always a very last resort."
Still, Revona has a reputation for taking tenants to housing court. The advocacy group Right to Counsel Coalition named Revona the second “worst evictor” in the city in 2021 after it sued to remove 852 tenants across a 9,472-unit portfolio.
Revona’s parent company Cammeby’s declined to comment.
Staten Island-based landlord lawyer Jay Duskin said the housing court system has its flaws, but called it the most effective way for property owners to hold tenants’ feet to the fire, or get the city to take cases seriously and intervene.
Duskin said he doesn’t represent Tysens, but understands why the company would be quick to file cases against tenants, especially after the COVID pandemic prevented or discouraged so many people from making their usual payments. He said the small amounts of unpaid rent add up across dozens of tenants.
“They're probably being prophylactic,” Duskin said. “That's a lot of money for someone who has a lot of tenants. By the time you get it resolved, there could be another six months of rent at that point in time.”
‘Behind the eightball’
Inside Staten Island’s bustling civil courthouse, tenants meet with their lawyers for quick consultations in the lobby before heading into a cavernous courtroom where a judge calls them to the bench. A list of the day’s 55 landlord-tenant cases were tacked to a cork board early last week.
A review of court records by Gothamist found tenants at Tysens Park who received eviction notices owed a median rent of $4,710 each.
Photo by David Brand
But not everyone has access to a lawyer, despite the city’s “right to counsel” for low-income tenants facing eviction
Tenants in only 31% of the 169 Tysens eviction cases filed since the start of 2022 had an attorney at some point in the process, court records show.
Gothamist matched 17 tenants’ court cases to actual evictions carried out by city marshals. Those tenants owed a median rent of about $6,600 when the landlord took them to court.
Just three ended up getting a lawyer.
One of the evicted tenants, a man named Martin, said he missed his court appearance while working upstate. He asked to use only his first name because he works as a building superintendent and said he feared how eviction-related stigma might affect his job prospects.
Martin said he fell behind on rent while helping his father pay for his apartment. He owed just under $7,400 when the landlord started the eviction process and never got an attorney to assist him.
Martin said he was back upstate working when the marshals arrived to change the locks and remove his possessions.
“I had no clue. When I showed up, all my stuff — the TV, the furniture, my clothes — all that was gone,” he said. “Someone new was living in the apartment.”
“I should have been more diligent,” he added.
Tenants like Martin who don’t show up to court, in some cases because they can’t miss work or have childcare issues, risk a “default judgment,” meaning a judge can order an eviction because they did not answer.
“The landlord already won,” said Legal Aid housing attorney Andrew Sy. “They are very behind the eightball.”
Tenants still have a chance to reach an agreement to remain in their homes, but it’s an uphill battle.
Renters who can’t get an attorney have to navigate a confusing system on their own. And the city is rejecting about two-thirds of applications from low-income New Yorkers trying to get emergency assistance to cover back rent.
Sy said those tenants can fall through the cracks and end up homeless.
“It's sort of like a whack-a-mole game,” Sy said. “You take care of the issue and then another issue pops up and you're just playing catch-up.”
Tagged
new york city
housing
staten island
economy
Politics
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
Read more
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NJ reports first West Nile Virus death of the year
While the national West Nile Virus trend has slowed down, activity in the Garden State has picked up.
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Oct 4, 2026 at 11:03 a.m. ET
NY's prison system is in crisis. It's driving staff away from the job.
The state is currently struggling with a 56% vacancy rate among prison workers.
By
Emily Russell
News
NY's prison system is in crisis. It's driving staff away from the job.
The state is currently struggling with a 56% vacancy rate among prison workers.
By
Emily Russell
NYPD searching for suspect after fatal stabbing in Queens
By
Ben Feuerherd
NYPD: 2 suspects in off-duty officer stabbing tried to rob victim
By
Jill Webb
Astoria-born Chip City announces sudden closure days after former CEO sues
By
Catalina Gonella
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .