(New York, NY) Vince Morgan, candidate for NYC Council District 9, on Monday, August 5′ 2013, unveiled a 5-point plan for creating and safeguarding affordable housing in Harlem outside the New York Civil County courthouse. Inside the courtroom, predatory landlord Inez Dickens was due to appear and continue the eviction of one of her tenants in her 187 Lenox Avenue building.
Dickens is attempting to evict her tenant by challenging the tenant’s “succession rights.” Under New York State law, family members have the right to take over a rent-regulated apartment when the leaseholder dies or leaves – in this case Dickens is suing the son after his mother passed away. If successful with this common predatory landlord tactic, she will be legally eligible to raise the rent for the apartment by as much as 26%. The tenant is also challenging Dickens over an infestation of mold that violates the building’s “warranty of habitability.”
“This is a clear example of how vulnerable tenants are victimized,” said Morgan Campaign Spokeswoman Donnette Dunbar. “And the reason why Vince Morgan is fighting for the extinction of predatory landlords in Harlem.”
Morgan laid out solutions for solving the affordable housing shortage in Harlem, including an unprecedented comprehensive inventory of affordable housing units, stronger pro-tenant safeguards, adjustments to the 421-a and other development subsidies to assist working families instead of billionaires, reforming 80/20 housing eligibility requirements, and finding alternative revenue opportunities for NYCHA developments without selling off community space.
“Access to clean, safe affordable housing is a top concern for Harlem families,” said Morgan. “I am excited to unveil a positive vision for protecting and creating affordable housing in our neighborhood and to begin a conversation on how we can assist vulnerable members of our community.”
Dickens’ properties have been revealed to contain nearly 200 active health and safety violations for “missing smoke detectors, broken wooden flooring, faulty electrical outlets, peeling paint and mold.” A CBS news crew visiting 187 Lenox last week encountered tenants with holes in their walls, mold infestations linked to childhood asthma, complaints of no heat during the winter and even a staircase railing that was held together with duck tape. NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has listed 187 Lenox Ave on the NYC’s “Worst Landlord Watchlist.”
Dickens was also revealed to owe New York City at least “$265,000 in unpaid code violations, property taxes and water bills.” But while she has repeatedly neglected to pay for building maintenance and only made property tax payments after NYC threatened to sell her debt to a collection agency, Dickens is not shy about aggressively suing low-income tenants – in a debate with Morgan Friday, Dickens bragged that she had only been in Housing Court “six times in the last 20 years” in response to questions regarding her building’s violations and infractions. However, Dickens has sued at least two other tenants in 2013 alone, and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development has also sued Dickens in Housing Court for dangerous conditions in her buildings.
