OP-ED: Stop Giving Our Public Land To Unfit Landlords

Editor's note: The author of this opinion piece lives in a building owned by Preservation Development Partners, which was co-founded by BFC Partners, the developer chosen by the city to operate the Bedford-Union Armory. Patch reached out to BFC and received a response, which is published alongside this article.

If you're interested in writing an op-ed for Patch, we'd love to hear from you. Or click here to learn about posting directly to Patch.

By Atoria Cunningham, New York Communities for Change

For the past 32 years, I have lived in East Flatbush in an apartment building on E 92nd St. This building is my home, and my neighbors and I have fought hard to live with the dignity and respect we deserve.

But recently it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Our landlord, like so many others, is more concerned with making a buck than in delivering a decent place to live.

This is not an unusual story; in fact, it’s very common. What is different about this situation is that our landlord is about to get an enormous piece of public land from the City to build housing that we won’t be able to afford.

And that’s not right.

Don Capoccia and BFC Development own my building. They are also set to build 388 units of housing — the majority of it luxury housing — at the Bedford Union Armory — about a mile away from where I live.

Our experience is that this landlord is not fit to own any housing, never mind to build almost 400 new units.

Last October, we were without cooking gas for over two months. We called NYCC, formed a tenant association, and organized to sue our landlord for better living conditions.

But as a result, in the last few months, my neighbors have experienced several problems with management.

The office is only open during hours that are inconvenient for working tenants, and it is impossible for us to communicate with management. Despite this, me and my neighbors try. After weeks of reaching out to management and receiving no response, one of my neighbors finally gave up and called 311 to report the problem.

Management's response was inappropriate. She was told she should have never called 311 and should have reached out to the office instead — despite her repeated efforts!

This kind of behavior should never be rewarded by the City of New York, but that is what the mayor and Council Member Laurie Cumbo will be doing if they do not stop the Bedford Armory deal from going forward.

The management's treatment of tenants is sometimes not as in-your-face. For example, each month we are required to pay our rent on time. If we miss the deadline we face late fees. But once we hand in the check, management is not required to cash it in any amount of time. It is not uncommon that they will sit on the the checks all the way until the end of the month. This means there is money sitting in our account that we can’t use.

My neighbors and I are low- and moderate-income tenants living on a fixed-income and tight budget. When we write checks and they’re not cashed, it can mess up our accounting for the month. And when they finally cash the check, it can overdraft our accounts and put us in dire financial straits.

It seems like there are different rules for the tenants and the landlord, and the tenants always end up with the short end of the stick.

The conditions in the building continue to deteriorate. We have an infestation problem of mice AND roaches.

Despite tenants taking off work — and losing crucial wages — in order to be at home for an exterminator, the problem persists. If Don Capoccia and BFC had this infestation in their home or office, do you think they would continue to use the same exterminator week after week with no results?

We withdrew our lawsuit against BFC last month in exchange for repairs in our apartments and building. We have yet to see if they will keep up their end of the bargain.

Everyone can see changes are happening in Brooklyn, rapidly, every day. Housing is getting even more expensive, neighborhood staples are disappearing, long-time food or clothing stores are becoming trendy coffee shops. Landlords in the city are trying to cash-in on the gentrification that is sweeping through and making millionaires — while displacing long-time residents.

We just want a safe and decent place to live, in a neighborhood that we have helped to build.

Unfortunately, our landlord is more concerned with building luxury housing than he is in providing his tenants with a quality building.

He is not fit to be our landlord, and the mayor and Council Member Cumbo should kill the Bedford Armory deal immediately, because there is no way he should be getting public land to build unaffordable housing.

In response to these claims, BFC Partners issued the following statement:

We are committed to addressing any issues raised over the course of our work to rehabilitate these previously neglected buildings and provide much-needed quality of life improvements, which are taking place at no cost to residents. Our management team met with residents to discuss several issues just hours after receiving their letter on October 24, and these issues are also explained below.

BFC Partners and K&R Preservation took over ownership of 185 E. 92nd Street and 182 E. 93rd Street in August 2016 following a history of mismanagement and neglect by the previous owner. As residents can attest, under the previous owner and management, both buildings relied on aging, poorly functioning boilers and gas lines that led to serious quality of life problems.

Shortly after we took over the buildings last year, safety inspectors from National Grid required that the gas be shut off indefinitely due to dangerous conditions stemming from illegal gas lines installed by the previous owner. This shutoff was the reason why residents of the buildings unfortunately faced a lack of gas for a period of time. Immediately after we were informed of that gas shutoff, we informed residents and supplied all households with hot plates to serve as a temporary replacement for gas stoves.

We acted quickly to replace the buildings’ dangerous and illegally installed gas lines with new, properly functioning gas lines. As part of that work, we were required to go through a lengthy inspection process to gain authorization from National Grid to turn the gas supply back on. That approval was granted in November 2016, and ever since that time, all residents of 185 E. 92nd Street and 182 E. 93rd have had full and safe access to gas.

Additionally, we worked to replace the buildings’ malfunctioning boiler with a new boiler to ensure full and reliable access to heat and hot water. As with the gas issue explained above, this required a temporary solution for residents while the old boiler was taken offline and replaced with a new one. While installing the new boiler, we purchased a mobile boiler to provide heat and hot water to all residents while the work was completed. The installation of that new boiler was completed in March 2017.

The installation of the new gas lines and boiler came at no cost to residents. Additionally, we are in the process of completing much-needed interior renovations.

With regard to residents’ concerns around exterminators, our management team met with residents to discuss the matter and agreed to reschedule exterminator service to better align with the residents’ work and personal schedules.

With regard to residents’ concerns around the timeliness of cashing rent checks, this was also discussed in the recent meeting – and management will ensure that all rent checks are cashed promptly.

Additionally, with regard to some residents’ concerns about interactions with a building manager, we agree that all residents should receive prompt and courteous responses to any inquiry and will ensure that this is the case moving forward. We are also committed to quickly addressing any issues raised regarding ongoing interior renovations.

We are focused on providing and maintaining much-needed quality of life improvements at 185 E. 92nd Street and 182 E. 93rd Street following years of mismanagement and neglect by the previous owner and manager. We will continue to engage directly with residents to address any questions or concerns as this work continues.

Image via BFC Partners