Landlord Trashes Displaced Tenants' Personal Items, Residents Say

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Tenants displaced from a Lower East Side apartment building said their landlord dumped some of their personal belongings in a dumpster on Wednesday.

Beleaguered residents of the building at 85 Bowery, who were forced to leave their home in January to allow for critical repairs at the building, said on Wednesday that their landlord had thrown their belongings into dumpsters on the street. Children's books, clothing and other personal items were found in the trash by residents, they said.

More than 70 people were left homeless in January when an inspection found the building at 85 Bowery to be too unsafe for human habitation. Since then, the Lower East Side residents have been living out of nearby hotels while waiting for the building's landlord, Joseph Betesh, to complete critical repairs to the building's crumbling infrastructure. Most residents of the building left their homes with only a portion of their personal belongings, leaving the rest behind in their homes for their eventual return.

Residents were initially promised that they could return home on March 28, but Betesh said at a March 21 court hearing that asbestos had been found in the building and that residents would not be able to return home as originally planned.

Local politicians slammed Betesh's handling of the situation.

Council Member Margaret Chin, who represents the Lower East Side in City Hall, called the landlord's actions "utterly disgusting."

"For nearly three months, through no fault of their own, the families of 85 Bowery have been forced to live a nightmare, and continue to face what seems like a never-ending timeline of repairs," Chin said in a statement "There is no excuse for being careless with people’s precious belongings. To Joseph Betesh, we have a simple message: our entire city is watching you, and we will hold you accountable for your actions."

Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou called the behavior "criminal" in a tweet. Niou said in a statement that residents found personal items like medicine, books and even cash in the garbage bags outside their building.

A spokesperson for 8583 Bowery LLC, Betesh's company that owns the building, disputed residents' description that their personal items were thrown in the trash.

"No usable items belonging to the families of 85 Bowery were intentionally discarded," the spokesman said in a statement. "Some items removed from the building were discarded because they were perceived to be perishable food or in contact with perishable food and/or other unusable items."

The landlord promised not to discard any additional items "unless they are obviously hazard to health."

The company said it would continue to remove belongings and that it would keep them in storage facilities at the company's expense.

It's unclear when the building's repairs will be completed and when residents will be able to return home.

Image credits: Courtesy of Caitlin Kelmar