Williamsburg Latino Tenants Sue Landlord for 'Deplorable' Living Conditions

SOUTH WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Three Latino tenants of a South Williamsburg apartment building are suing their landlord, Naftali Steinmetz, for making their lives dangerous and unlivable in order to push them out of the building, according to federal court records obtained by Patch.

Plaintiffs Cindy Sanchez, Sara Oyola, and Kathleen Santiago, tenants of 273 Lee Ave., are suing Steinmetz for neglecting for over a decade to conduct repairs in their apartments that posed immediate danger to them and their families, including failing to provide heat through at least two winters, court documents say.

These were tactics used as means of "forcing Latino tenants to leave deplorable and unlivable conditions," according to court documents. The plaintiffs are suing Steinmetz under violation of the Fair Housing Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, the NYC Human Rights Law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, court documents show.

"Today, Plaintiffs Oyola, Santiago, and Sanchez, and their respective families, are the only Latino tenants remaining not only in their building, but on their entire block and beyond; now, the area is almost entirely inhabited by members of the Hasidic Jewish community," the court case says.

Oyola used to bring her daughter to play in PS 380's school yard nearby, but she is now told by Hasidic Jewish residents to leave when she brings her grandson to the same place, the case alleges.

The tenants moved into the eight-unit 273 Lee Ave. more than 20 years ago with their families, according to the court documents. In the early 90s, they lived in a friendly neighborhood, where everyone would say hi to them in public, and they felt welcome on sidewalks and in nearby parks as part of a big melting pot, they said. But in late 1995, the widow of the old owner of 273 Lee Ave. sold the building to 273 Lee Holding Corporation, which has since employed Hasidic Jews as owners of the building, according to court records.

Sanchez, Oyola, and Santiago formed the 273 Lee Avenue Tenants Association in 1998, after three years of 273 Lee Holding Corporation refusing to do necessary repairs to their apartments, court documents say.

Steinmetz bought the building under the name Lee Realty, LLC in 2006, according to court records. It was then that all the Latino residents of the building began to experience incessant harassment to take buyout offers, as well as a persistent refusal to conduct necessary repairs in their apartments, court documents say.

Oyola's brother Sergio Sanchez, who lived in Apartment 2L with his family, took a buyout in 2009, and not soon after, Oyola's sister, Silvia Monzano, and her family moved out of 3R after taking a buyout. Oyola's cousins, who lived in 4R and 2R, also took buyouts, one in 2010 and the other in 2012.

After the buyouts, each tenant was replaced by a Hasidic family, the court documents allege. The plaintiffs were left as the only Latinos still living in the building, they said.

Juana Moreno and Oscar Melendez, Oyola's cousins who lived in 4R, had black mold growing on their walls and ceilings, no electrical ventilation in their ceiling, and cracked floor tiles in the kitchen and bedrooms, according to court documents. They were offered three buyouts before they took one for $25,000.

As soon as Moreno and Melendez moved out, Steinmetz ordered a complete gut renovation of their unit for the next tenant, court documents show.

Steinmetz hired one unnamed repairman from 2009 to 2011 to do all "repairs" in the plaintiffs' apartments, but his work was never adequate, and often it made things worse, court documents allege. For example, in one incident, the worker came to Sanchez's apartment because her kitchen cabinet was loose from the wall and was about to fall. According to the court case, the repairman came in to her unit, shook the cabinet, and when it didn't fall, he said it didn't need to be repaired and walked out.

In another incident, the repairman came to fix a light in Sanchez's bathroom, fiddled with the light until the entire apartment blacked out, and left, Sanchez said. No one ever came after to fix the electricity.

The repairman told the plaintiffs he knew his repairs were shoddy, but that Steinmetz had asked him to do them that way, according to court documents.

Since 2009 — when the thermostat was suspiciously moved from Oyola's apartment to a new Hasidic tenant's apartment in 4L — the plaintiffs have consistently had their heat turned off on the weekends. It was on the weekends that they observed all the Hasidic tenants of the building travel with suitcases in tow to a destination for the weekend, court documents say.

When the tenants tried to call management about the frigid temperatures in their apartments, their calls went straight to voicemail, and they were left only able to call 311, court documents say.

The court case alleges that Steinmetz put the tenants in danger on at least a dozen occasions, including an incident where one of the plaintiffs' ceiling lightbulb was leaking unidentified liquid for several months, posing an immediate risk to her and her family. In another incident, a plaintiff's shower wall was knocked down, and the debris and open wall was left for months with just a plastic sheet to cover it, the court case alleges.

Steinmetz tried to settle with the plaintiffs three times by offering vacant apartments to them in Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, which they said would only further the segregation pattern happening now in the Hasidic section of Williamsburg, the case says.

In December of 2015 and January of 2016, two apartments in the building became vacant, and they are still vacant, according to an affidavit from Sanchez. Steinmetz has refused to offer any of the vacant apartments to the plaintiffs, Sanchez said.

Patch was able to reach Steinmetz by phone on Tuesday, but he hung up on us. Several subsequent attempts to call him went straight to a voicemail that hadn't yet been set up to receive messages.

Photo of 273 Lee Ave. via Google Maps