Injured Brooklyn Tenant 'Trapped' After Year Without Elevator

BROOKLYN, NY — Around Christmas, Lisa Mitchell was asleep in her sixth-story apartment on Washington Avenue when a "searing pain" jolted her awake.

"My legs were paralyzed," said Mitchell, who has back problems and neuropathy, or nerve damage, in her legs and arms. "I couldn't move the pain was so crazy."

Mitchell called 911, got dressed and prepared herself for the moment when emergency responders would carry her pain-wracked body down six flights of stairs, she said. She knew they couldn't take the elevator because it was out of service — It had been for 11 months.

Mitchell is the tenant of a Brooklyn building on Washington and Gates avenues she says she's being squeezed out of by landlords who fail to make necessary repairs and, without the elevator, leave her trapped in her home.

Photos shared with Patch show garbage piling up, holes in the wall and open construction sites Mitchell says have been there for months.

Housing Preservation and Development records show as of Friday that the building at 475 Washington Ave. had 87 open violations, five of which were specific to Mitchell's apartment, and include problems with garbage and the intercom.

These and other issues have repeatedly drawn Mitchell to court over the past 19 years, she told Patch.

But Landlord Barry Leon says the delays in elevator repairs are the fault of the city. He claims Mitchell has been making up "bogus allegations" to angle for a pay-out.

"She figures if she creates enough hassle and enough craziness I will give up," Leon said. "At this point, though, philosophically I don't want to bend to what I consider extortion."

Mitchell's painful journey down her building's steps is one she'd become accustomed to — it came the same week as two visits to the doctor for back pain (Patch has reviewed medical records for these visits) and a fall on the stairs earlier that month.

It also came a month after Mitchell wept in a New York City courtroom.

"I told [the judge], 'I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to do this,'" Mitchell said.

Leon told Patch that delays with the Department of Buildings and the company replacing the elevator had caused the extended outage, which he hopes will end in the next week or two.

The elevator, built in 1986, was in need of a replacement, said Leon, who has converted all but five rent-stabilized units in 475 Washington to condos in the last few years.

Leon contended the elevator had only been out for several months, though he wasn't sure of an exact date. (Emails with management and signs posted in the building shared by Mitchell with Patch show the elevator was turned off between January and Feb. 1 of 2021.)

"I’ve been having every incentive to get this stupid elevator finished," Leon said, noting Mitchell's complaints and his ongoing work in the building. "This is not directed at her in any manner, shape or form."

The elevator problem is the latest in a decades-long saga between Mitchell and Leon.

Mitchell — one of two original tenants left in her 30-unit side of the building — claims Leon has stopped caring for the remaining rent-stabilized tenants to "put the squeeze" on them to leave, likely to also turn their units into luxury condos.

On top of the elevator outage, Mitchell has dealt with rodent infestations, trash pile-ups, water and heat outages, a broken intercom and a kitchen repair that took years, she said.

Mitchell says Leon has offered her upwards of $200,000 to leave the building, but she is asking for at least $3 million given the years of damages.

"Why should I leave my neighborhood of 26 years?" she says. "This is not just an apartment, this is my home."

Leon — who admits he is selling off most of the building after becoming "disenchanted" with New York City real estate — contends Mitchell exaggerates or makes up allegations to angle for a pay-out while not paying rent, which she hasn't done in several years. Mitchell told Patch only owes a few months in rent given a recent payment through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

The landlord claims Mitchell complains about issues in her apartment and then refuses to allow repairmen in to fix them and has postponed the court cases several times. Court logs show Mitchell's most recent case against Leon has been rescheduled 11 times in the past year, though no reason is included.

Said Leon, "...let the courts finish up and make her pay what she owes."

In the meantime, Mitchell moved this week to a friend's house given her health issues and the building's condition, she told Patch.

Her back and leg pain has meant missing weeks of work as a hairstylist, including the usual holiday rush, and likely won't be fully healed for another several weeks, she said.

"I’m a woman trapped," Mitchell said. "This is what he wanted — to put the squeeze. At first I thought, okay, it’s business, but he wants us out, and he definitely wants me out."