Uptown Landlord Denies Disabled Tenant 1st Floor Unit, Pols Say

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Washington Heights resident Juan Quispe has lived in the same West 186th Street building for 29 years, but in recent years the 64-step trek up and down from his fifth floor apartment has been a struggle.

Quispe lost feeling in his left arm and now walks with a cane after suffering a stroke. The senior citizen relies on a home health aide to help him up and down the steps, and said that simply getting out of the house is "very, very difficult."

On Thursday, Quispe stood outside his longtime home with local elected officials to demand that his landlord follow through with a state order to provide the tenant a first-floor apartment. State Senator Robert Jackson and Congressman Adriano Espaillat said that landlord Celaj Bashkim must follow an order from the state Division of Human Rights to accommodate Quispe's needs and provide a first floor apartment at a similar rent to what the tenant currently pays on his fixed income.

"[Juan Quispe's}] been living in this building for 29 years, and for 15 years, he's been fighting in order to get a suitable apartment on the first floor so that he won't have to struggle anytime he has to leave his apartment," Jackson said Thursday.

Espaillat likened Quispe's forced trips up five flights of stairs to "cruel and unusual punishment," and said that in June the Division of Human Rights ruled that Quispe was entitled to a currently-vacant apartment on the building's first floor. Bashkim has appealed the ruling because he wants to rent the apartment for a higher price than Quispe can afford on his fixed income, Espaillat said.

"He's a resident, a tenant in this building already on the fifth floor and is simply asking for transfer downstairs to an apartment, where he doesn't have to go through an incredible ordeal on a daily basis," Espaillat said.

The Division of Human Rights first ruled in 2015 that Quispe's landlord must provide him a first-floor apartment, elected officials said. Since that ruling, Quispe has been offered second- or third-floor units in other buildings that are part of LilJov's portfolio or first-floor units at rents significant higher than what he currently pays, elected officials said.

Four years after the ruling, Quispe is still living in his fifth-floor unit and the Division of Human Rights is back in court with the landlord. Quispe said that apartment number four, a first-floor unit in his building,

Quispe's current fight revolved around apartment number four in his West 186th Street building. The first-floor unit has been vacant since January, but Bashkim is refusing to relocate Quispe without an increase in rent, elected officials said. State Senator Jackson said the state order stipulates that Quispe is entitled to the new apartment at the same rent he currently pays.

The senator also accused the landlord of failing to perform a "good faith effort" to find Quispe a first-floor unit in the four years since the original 2015 ruling. Bashkim's management company LilJov Realty Corporation, which is also associated with ASC Properties, has six buildings containing 38 first-floor apartments, Jackson said.

Jackson said Thursday that his staff has been in contact with the landlord, but has not been able to come to an agreement that honors the 2015 Division of Human Rights ruling in Quispe's favor.

Patch's request for comment left with the landlord was not immediately returned.