As a community, we always thought we were immune from these things, but the “eviction machine” described in a New York Times article, is building up momentum, attacking Roosevelt Island’s most vulnerable residents.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
What happened…shows how New York City’s housing court system, created in part to shelter tenants from dangerous conditions, has instead become a tool for landlords to push them out and wrest a most precious civic commodity — affordable housing — out of regulation and into the free market.
New York Times: The Eviction Machine Churning Through New York City
The 2018 article described how real estate developers teamed up to force subsidized tenants out of their homes, converting their apartments to more profitable market-rate housing.
Then, as hideous as it was, it touched little of Roosevelt Island, although the process was there, but under Mayor Eric Adams, it’s rattling Roosevelt Island with an overt eviction push.
It’s centered in Roosevelt Landings, but the good news is that none of Roosevelt Island’s other landlords come this close to tenant abuse.
The Eviction Machine in Action
During one of many eviction efforts against a single tenant, Roosevelt Landings’s attorney angrily barked, “What don’t you understand? The landlord doesn’t want you.”
The Roosevelt Islander responded, “I couldn’t care less,” and the battle continues now, years later.
About half of this tenant’s rent is paid by the government. The tenant always pays on time, but Roosevelt Landings allegedly plays a game. Their “pay-to” address, documents show, is a moving target, changing as often as four times in a year. When payments don’t get forwarded, Roosevelt Landings’s attorney moves for eviction.
That attorney, Gutman, Mintz, Baker & Sonnenfeldt, brought almost 110,000 eviction cases over five years, according to the Times report.
“I wonder if they are targeting people who receive Section 8,” a nonprofit counselor dealing with rent issues told us.
“I get these outrageous rent statements for people who always pay the rent in time. They eventually straighten it out, but it is a drain trying to correct mistakes that their accounting department makes.”
That, some suspect, is part of the strategy: Wear them out with repeated notices, forcing trips to Housing Court and, for many, legal expenses.
Here’s a look at the frightening collection notices sent by Gutman, Mintz, Baker & Sonnenfeldt:
The letter is confusing and screams in all capitals. Elderly and physically challenged tenants, some residents for decades, are terrified about losing thie homes.
Identifying information has been removed to protect the Roosevelt Landings tenant.
Setting the Stage
One Roosevelt Islander went into detail about how Roosevelt Landings’s owners set things up.
Eastwood increases, based on Manhattan Park rents as a comparable, lead to approximately $1,000 increases each month for 870 units. (3 of the 1,003 units are for the Supers.) Do the math…. 870 X $1,000 = $870,000 per month = $10,440,000.00 per year.
Using the same average figure for the pricing differential, $1,000 per unit (actually it was smaller because fair market prices were higher, but for simplification I’ll use $1,000,) LAP ate into that windfall increase by $130,000 per month, $1,560,000 per year.
A Roosevelt Islander
This refers to the time when Roosevelt Landings, then-Eastwood, exited Mitchell-Lama, becoming subject to market rates.
The leap to using Manhattan Park is bogus for anyone aware of both complexes. Always market-rate in its main buildings – 10 through 40 River Road – is a concierge building with amenities far in excess of Roosevelt Landings.
But wait, we objected. Roosevelt Landings and Manhattan Park are not comparable at all.
“Of course they weren’t. But they convinced the powers that be that they were, hence the huge hike in the amount the government had to pay for the units.
“They had to show that they were charging new fair market tenants the same rate they were charging the government, so they put up walls and turned two bedroom units into 3 and 3 bedroom units into 4, etc, so the apartments in the relevant line netted the same or a similar rate compared to Manhattan Park. The government either didn’t get wise or didn’t care.”
The Eviction Machine’s Additional Contributions
Others ramped up the accusations of abuse with observations like these:
“No heat or inadequate heat. One freezing tenant is 96 years old.”
“Outrageous rent invoices for residents with Section 8 subsidies.”
“The pot smoking throughout the building is suffocating, especially in the shared hallways.”
“They built a construction shed behind Eastwood. Complete with lights. However, they never turn the lights on, and it is dark and dangerous at night, often with homeless people sleeping in it. Recently, there have been human excrement underneath it as well…”
“The smoke doors in the hallway are frequently broken – inoperative and stuck in an open position. It’s is very difficult to get through or impossible to open automatically, thus extremely dangerous to one in a wheelchair. There are times when it is stuck in a closed position, and with my full weight, I cannot open it.”
“In the past, they regularly shampooed the carpet, not to mention, vacuumed in the hallways. It was, I believe, daily when I first came here. Now I believe it is monthly.” I’ve been here since 1999.”
Finally…
Careless oversight by RIOC apparently opens the gates for the real estate corruption that’s plagued Manhattan, forcing low income tenants out. Several Roosevelt Landings tenants are exploring a class action suit, but the search is compounded by their likely inability to land any but pro bono representation.
At the same time, public officials are elected on the promise of looking out for the community, especially the most vulnerable. One hope is that they have not already sold out to greedy real estate interests.
Another is that Roosevelt Island’s more ethical developers will step in and save the ethical name of their profession by batting back obvious abuses.
But can or will anyone save Roosevelt Island from this plague before it’s too late?
“I Can Ask”
Chair Fay Christian opened the Operations Advisory Committee on February 12th, reading out member names from a prepared sheet that omitted Melissa Wade. It didn’t feel intentional, but it struck me as odd precisely because it came from something prepared. Lydia Tang gently corrected her, noting that Wade was, in fact, a member of the committee. Wade met the moment with grace, or perhaps she simply wasn’t bothered by it.
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