Bed-Stuy Landlord's Neglect Nearly Left Tenants Homeless

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — When Celeste suddenly found out she was homeless, the first thing she grabbed was the two urns that sat by her bedside. One contains her mother's ashes, the other her beloved aunt.

Night had descended over her Bed-Stuy building at 155 Hancock St. when tenants learned on Nov. 3 of a full vacate order issued over an eight-by-five-foot slab of stucco dangling over their front entrance.

Building inspectors had decided the slab posed an immediate threat to tenants of the building's 10 units, so the Red Cross was stationed outside to offer aid and guidance on the city's shelter system.

"We work, we pay our rent," Celeste, who asked that only use her first name be used, said of her home for 20-plus years. "And when you do those things, you expect to be able to have peace in your home."

The vacate order — and resultant $12,500 fine — was a culmination of years of neglect from an absent landlord and management company, Celeste told Patch. It was also one of nearly 200 issued by the city in 2022.

Patch reached out to management company JWasser for comment but received only confirmation that they tend the building. The man named on city records as the owner, Neil Smilen, appears to have died, according to Celeste and an online obituary.

The Bed-Stuy tenant has since returned, but Celeste, who works in childcare, remains outraged that she and other working class residents who pay their bills live daily with the fear of losing their homes.

"That's the thing that was the most disheartening," Celeste said. "To have that taken away from you by someone else's negligence, and not really have a recourse to what happens to you next."

"Ten Families Homeless Immediately"

"Pack up anything you can't stand to lose," Celeste told her 15-year-old daughter as she grabbed a few days of clothing, prescription medications, passports and documents into her suitcase, in addition to her ancestor's remains.

Her daughter grabbed her guitar and skateboard, plus some of her favorite drawings.

The family cat, Buddy, also came along.

Luckily, Celeste and her daughter had relatives in Brownsville who hosted them for two weeks until the owners erected a sidewalk shed and the Buildings department rescinded the vacate order.

"I'm grateful that this didn't mean that I was homeless," Celeste said.

Celeste moved back in, but her daughter, fearful of being homeless again, remains at her relative's home, despite the extra 30 minutes it takes her to get to her midtown school.

Celeste understands her daughter's fears because she shares them.

With so many other issues in the building, which Celeste says suffers from years of neglect, she remains afraid another vacate order could be in the works.

"If the city deems this property not for us to be able to come back in," Celeste said. "That's 10 families homeless immediately."

Years Of Neglect, With Little Action From The City

Building inspectors first reported a crumbling facade at 155 Hancock St. 17 years ago, in 2005, city records show.

"The landlord ignored this violation of that slab that had been in place for about 10 years," Celeste said. "And he did nothing about it until the city basically told us to get out of our homes."

The evening of Nov. 3, Celeste's home joined nearly 200 New York City buildings to receive vacate orders due to a"failure to maintain" in 2022, records show.

These orders are given only a last resort order when a building is no longer safe to occupy, according to a Buildings department spokesperson.

But data show the city has begun to rely more and more on this "last resort" tactic, issuing roughly 100 in 2019 and 2020, but more than 400 in 2021 and nearly 200 in 2022.

A recent analysis from the New School's Center For New York City Affairs reports housing is "falling apart" across the five boroughs.

The report notes the city received a record 583,230 housing complaints in 2022, yet the number of corrected housing code violations dropped.

"We need to turn these numbers around – immediately," wrote Oksana Mironova and Samual Stein in their analysis. "By almost every measure, basic maintenance of New York City’s housing is spiraling downward."

But Celeste says neglect has been the norm in her building since Smilen bought it 19 years ago, and city data back up her claim.

The building has received 403 housing complaints since 2014, more than 100 of which were issued in 2022, according to the justfix.org, a website that crunches New York City data.

The Hancock Street residence currently has 60 open violations and conditions, mostly heat and hot water, have lead to several housing court cases according to Housing, Preservation and Development department data.

Celeste shared a long list of issues:

Piled up trash welcomes hordes of rats to infest the building. Celeste's wooden window frames have rotted out, creating strong drafts when standing nearby. Light switches no longer work. Bricks are missing from the facade. A hole in her ceiling was recently fixed, but the leak that caused it remains.

"Ever since he bought the building," Celeste said of her landlord, "He's done the bare minimum."

Celeste says she's been in touch with the Division of Housing and Community Renewal to help get repairs and frequently calls 311 and city agencies.

Sometimes Celeste takes time off work to let in the promised city inspectors who frequently fail to show up.

As Celeste watches new neighbors move in and quickly move out (she says no tenant has remained in the unit beneath her for more than a year), she wonders if the neglect could amount to systemic harassment.

"Those who have the option of not staying when their lease is up, they leave," she said. "They can leave and go to another building, but there are some of us here who don't have that option."

Celeste says the apartment where her daughter was born and raised no longer feels like home.

The whole situation, Celeste told Patch, is an "example of the power that your landlord truly has over you, when he decides that it makes better financial sense to let the building crumble and empty the building, as opposed to making sure your tenants have a place to live."