Leaky Bathrooms, Unclosing Windows: Harlemites Rally Against Landlord

HARLEM, NY — Leaky bathrooms, windows not closing properly during the scalding summer or frigid winters, work orders getting closed out despite unfinished repairs, and a lack of building security.

These were some of the reasons Harlem and other Upper Manhattan residents part of the Northern Manhattan Tenant Union gave for coming together Saturday to rally against their shared landlord.

The tenants part of the recently formed union live in 19 buildings managed by TriHill Management LLC, which is a subsidiary of the real estate developer Sugar Hill Capital Partners.

“I have had a constant leak in my bathroom for over five years," Tay Raymond, a tenant of a building on 116th Street, told Patch. "None of my bedroom windows fully close. So when there is no heat, my bedroom reaches freezing temperatures.”

The rally at the intersection of 116th Street and Lenox Avenue was organized to call attention to "disrepair at dozens of Harlem buildings."

"No building security, no repairs, and no person, just machines," Joy Nelson, a tenant of a Sugar Hill-owned building at West 112th Street told Patch. "Practice empathy for your tenants and act accordingly."

Sugar Hill Capital declined to give a comment but did confirm an earlier reported figure that 97 percent of work orders in its building portfolio were addressed and closed out in 2022.

Sugar Hill Capital bought dozens of buildings in Harlem and Washington Heights shortly before a set of 2019 tenant protection laws went into effect limiting the ability to raise rents and change the classification of rent-stabilized apartments.

Subsequently, in 2021 and 2022, executives at Sugar Hill Capital were respectively ranked the worst and 7th worst on the NYC Public Advocate's Worst Landlord Watchlist for the number of building violations and evictions.

Now, with the real estate company struggling to make money off the uptown properties, it has begun to look to transfer the ownership of the buildings to a nonprofit.

The idea to form the TriHill Tenants Coalition — now the Northern Manhattan Tenant Union —began in October 2022, when around 25 TriHill tenants from five different uptown buildings organized a town hall in collaboration with State Senator Robert Jackson.

A town hall then took place at the end of February that saw residents from nearly 30 buildings meet within the Jewish Community Center in Harlem.

The Northern Manhattan Tenant Union said during the rally it was seeking "action, answers, and justice from Sugar Hill Capital."

"Work orders have been closed without work being done," Courtney Liddell, another tenant of a Sugar Hill Capital-owned building on West 116th Street told Patch. "Shoddy repair work and sloppy paint jobs cause me to handle most things on my own."

Read More:

• Harlem Tenants Join Uptown Coalition Against Local Landlord