Astoria Tenants Protest Landlord's Refusal To Repair Boiler

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Tenants of a rent-regulated apartment building in Astoria say their landlord has left them out in the cold by refusing to repair their building's malfunctioning boiler.

Residents rallied outside their home at 21-11 27th St. on Wednesday condemning their landlord, Patricia Martin, for ignoring their requests to fix the hot water and heating for more than a month.

Instead, the landlord has threatened to evict them, even though rent stabilization law protects the tenants, according to the Legal Aid Society, which is filing a case in Queens housing court on behalf of the tenants.

“This is an outrageous case of a landlord tinkering with her tenants’ rights by turning off their heat," said Sateesh Nori, attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society's Queens office. "During this pandemic no one should be subject to such harassment and abuse."

What it’s like to #homeschool when you have no heat. pic.twitter.com/oqSf29xSlb
— sknori (@sateesh_nori) November 18, 2020

Tenants living in the 16-unit building, many of whom are immigrants and low-wage workers, include children as young as one and some with chronic health conditions, such as asthma.

That — and plummeting temperatures — makes the problem all the more urgent, elected officials and advocates said.

“At a time when so many New Yorkers are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, put food on the table, and the temperatures are only plunging, it is unconscionable that some landlords would wield their power over their tenants by denying them consistent heat and hot water,” New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos said in a statement.

Martin, the landlord, told CBS2 New York that she fixed the boiler after weeks of no heat from late September to early November but that she was unaware of other complaints.