Tenants Call Out Landlords 'Callous Disregard' For Lead Exposure

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The city must crack down on landlords who infest apartment buildings with toxic lead dust from shoddy construction, a coalition of Lower Manhattan tenants and activists demanded at a Tuesday march.

The Lead Dust Free New York City coalition, made up of organizers with the Cooper Square Committee and local tenants associations, marched through the Lower East Side and the East Village, visiting privately-owned properties where residents have struggled with lead dust contamination from reckless construction, often as a means to push out rent-regulated residents from gentrifying neighborhoods, said an organizer with the Cooper Square Committee.

"Lead dust contamination is an entirely preventable issue but we know that these neighborhoods are continuing to gentrify and face displacement pressure," said Jodie Leidecker, who donned a "landlord turkey" costume at the post-Thanksgiving march covered with names of the area's worst landlords.

"This is a ridiculous costume because this is a ridiculous issue. We should not be having this issue in 2018 in New York City that tenants are still being poisoned by lead dust from negligent landlords."

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Tenants in privately-owned buildings are often exposed to dust laden with the heavy metal when landlords "cut corners" and renovate buildings without abiding by city safety regulations — transforming homes into noxious nightmares, said Leidecker.

Jodie Leidecker dressed as a "landlord turkey" at Tuesday's march through the Lower East Side and East Village. (Photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch)

The City Council is in the midst of a comprehensive overhaul of city lead laws — the biggest since 2004 — with the introduction of 23 bills this spring that seek to eliminate lead poisoning across the city. Homes, parks, schools and drinking water are all covered in the package, which also aims to amend testing and enforcement rules to give the city more power and lower the threshold for what constitutes unhealthy lead levels.

Members of the Lead Dust Free New York City coalition touted lawmakers efforts as a crucial step on the path toward meaningful lead reform.

"We’re really thankful to have the Council taking up this issue. We also want to implore them to stay strong during this process of negotiation we know that happens," said Brandon Kielbasa, the director of organizing and policy with the Cooper Square Committee.

Adults who suffer from lead poisoning face a slew of health risks including increased blood pressure, decreased kidney function or reproductive problems in men and women. Children under six are especially susceptible to the element and often face developmental delays, behavioral and learning problems and anemia due to exposure, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Laws — such as Local Law 1 of 2004 — are already on the books to ensure health and safety measures are taken to protect tenants, but advocates say they are rarely enforced.

"Dealing with bad acting landlords in this city has become an epidemic, I and many other tenants of buildings have repeatedly had to take our landlords to court to force them to act," said Sergio Alarcon, a tenant at 113 Stanton St. — owned by one of the Lower East Side's most infamous landlords Samy Mahfar of SMA Equities — where a contractor recently fell through a tenant's ceiling into their apartment.

"If this city and its administrators actually care about the housing crisis here, then they need to stop taking it easy on landlords and real estate developers who play with people’s lives in favor of monetary gain."

Tenants at 233 E. 5th St. — once owned by Raphael Toledano until Madison Realty Capital foreclosed on the property and 14 others in the neighborhood — endured haphazard construction kicking up lead dust throughout the building in 2016.

When outraged tenants approached the supervisor, he claimed the building didn't contain lead, but when the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducted tests it found concentrations 16 times the federally accepted figure of 40 micrograms per square foot.

"This is just indicative of the callous disregard for peoples' health that we experienced with our landlord at the time," said Jim Markowich, a resident of the building and an organizer with Tenants Taking Control.

Frantic tenants typically call 311 to report crude construction and urge the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to test their buildings for lead exposure. But even obtaining those results can come with its own set of obstacles.

SMA Equities purchased 210 Rivington St. in 2013 and began gut-renovating vacant apartments, which spewed lead dust into the building's hallways. When the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducted tests, reports showed lead levels were nearly nine times higher than the standard.

Conditions at 210 Rivington St. including gapping holes in tenant's apartments allowing debris into units and hallways laden with dust from construction. (Photos courtesy of Seth Wandersman)

It took nearly two months — while residents lived in those hazardous conditions — for tenants to obtained that data from the city after working with then Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and filing a Freedom of Information Act request, said one tenant.

“It took us about two months to get the results and getting them seems like a victory but it doesn’t end up being that way," said Seth Wandersman, who has lived at 210 Rivington for 18 years.

"We were on this endless treadmill of trying to get inspectors to come. The whole system felt unworkable."

One proposed law sponsored by Councilwoman Margret Chin, whose district includes the Lower East Side, seeks to improve interagency coordination between the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Department of Buildings with the goal of enhancing how city agencies work together to prevent and limit lead exposure.

East Village resident Christine Rucci and her 16-year-old son Owen endured several symptoms in their E. 5th St. building as the unit beside her apartment was gut-renovated and they awaited city inspections — Rucci declined to give her address citing pending litigation with her landlord.

Her pet rabbit acted as the "canary in the coal mine," suffering an eye infection and eventually dying, she said. Soon after she developed rashes and her son's asthma symptoms returned, forcing her to send him to temporarily live with his father.

After a doctor's visit, Rucci said she was stunned to learn that tests found lead and arsenic in her blood.

"I'm a single-mom and to have your home be what's making you sick — its a terrible thing," said Rucci, who joined the Lead Dust Free New York City coalition.

Over a five month period inspectors with the Department of Buildings and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene visited her apartment, but a joint-task force with improved channels of communication would ensure the agencies are able to promptly address lead exposure, she said.

“The apartment is clean, everything is repaired now but it took a year and the lead will never go out of my body," said Rucci. "This will be with me for life."

Lead photo courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch