LES Tenants Threaten Hunger Strike If Repairs Aren't Completed

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Tenants who were displaced from their Chinatown home last month after the building was deemed unstable are threatening to launch a hunger strike next week if they're not allowed to return to their homes.

Dozens of families — an estimated 75 people total — were forced to leave their Chinatown home at 85 Bowery on Jan. 18 after inspectors deemed the building structurally unstable. Since then, most families have been forced to commute long distances from a hotel in East New York while waiting for the building's landlord, Joseph Betesh, to finish the necessary repairs.

City inspectors reviewed the building last month, and on Jan. 18 deemed that a staircase in the building was structurally unsound and issued a vacate order.

The order prompted a dramatic evacuation of the building, with most tenants only able to grab a handful of belongings before leaving their homes. Since then, the vacate order has been partially lifted to allow tenants to retrieve more personal items.

Tenants were placed in a hotel in Brooklyn, a building they said was far from their places of work and schools.

On Wednesday, Council Member Margaret Chin introduced new legislation that would require landlords to partially foot the bill for tenants' hotels should residents need to be relocated, like in the ongoing situation at 85 Bowery. At a press conference announcing the legsialtion, Chin demanded that Betesh pay for all tenants of 85 Bowery to be relocated closer to their community.

The bill, which Chin originally proposed in 2014, would require certain landlords to deposit money into an escrow account equal to at least 10 percent of the building's rent roll for the previous five years. Should a vacate order be issued, the money could be used to relocate tenants in a nearby hotel.

Chin, a Democrat, represents District 1, which includes the Bowery, in City Hall.

Betesh's company has since paid for multiple families to be relocated to a hotel in Chinatown, taking out 18 units in the local hotel.

Tenants and advocates protested outside of the city's offices for Housing Preservation and Development on Friday, demanding that the city step in to take over the repairs. In particular, tenants demanded that the building be repaired before the approaching Chinese New Year on Feb. 16. At least four tenants will launch a hunger strike on Feb. 8 if the building has not been repaired by then, they said on Friday.

“Our team is working diligently each day to repair the severely damaged infrastructure of 85 Bowery and make the building safe for habitation," a spokesman for Betesh's company said in a statement. "Any reports claiming that we seek to demolish the building or replace it with a hotel or condominiums are false. We all share the same goal – moving families back into their homes as quickly as possible. We understand this a very difficult time for families of 85 Bowery and we are providing quality hotel accommodations in Chinatown, for the duration of repairs, so families are able to remain in the local community while our work continues.”

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch. Image caption: Displaced tenants protesting in front of the HPD building on Friday.