Repeated failure to correct horrendous living conditions at 1055 University Avenue has brought the building’s owners to the brink of a trial and possible jail time.

The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is pursuing a comprehensive lawsuit against Highbridge Apartments LLC, the company that owns the building. The lawsuit does not address living conditions in merely one or several apartments, but the building as a whole.

The case appears destined for trial within a matter of weeks, said Jeanne Cuscione, a court attorney at Bronx County Housing court. Court records indicate the HPD suit, which specifically names head officer Hamid Khan and managing agent Mir Ali, seeks four claims against Highbridge Apartments LLC: [1] A contempt ruling against the building’s owners for violating a previous order to repair all violations; [2] fines to the tune of hundreds of dollars per day for each day these violations have remained uncorrected; [3] a new court order to correct all existing violations; and [4] a sentence of 30 days in civil jail for Khan and Ali.

From Bad To Worse

On October 19, 2006, the court ordered Highbridge Apartments LLC to correct all “C” (immediately hazardous) and “B” (hazardous) violations within 30 days, and all “A” violations within 90 days.

However, HPD alleges, inspectors who visited the building several months later in February and March of 2007 discovered a very small number of the 1,545 total violations had been fixed; only 692 were accessed by inspectors, and of those, only 126 had been corrected. 

But it’s not just that old problems have persisted; new ones have arisen too. The building was hit with hundreds more violations between October 19 and May 24, bringing the new total to 2,129.  On May 17 alone, 17 “C” infractions were issued, including for conditions previously observed by the Horizon: A lack of hot and cold water at John Brown’s second-floor apartment; a non-working toilet in a third-floor unit; and the broken fifth-floor step that triggered Eddieberto Cruz’s fall and resulted in him needing several stitches.

The next day, May 18, the city Department of Buildings (DOB) ordered tenants in three apartments—1H, 2H, and 3H—to vacate their homes due to “imminent danger to the life and safety of the occupants.”  This danger, the DOB said, was due to “vertical and horizontal cracks with openings observed in ceiling of 2H.”  The buildings department also found that the apartment’s bathtub was sloping downwards and that the floor was in danger of crashing onto the unit below.

Property manager Rafi Siddiqi, who joined Khan and Ali at housing court on June 12, said 25 to 30 workers hired by Highbridge Apartments LLC were working in the building  each day, and that about 1000 violations had already been corrected in roughly the previous six weeks.  Siddiqi also said his company had taken out a $200,000 loan from a “friend of the owner” to pay the workers.

Siddiqi acknowledged preventing HPD-hired workers from accessing the building, but said this was because management was already taking steps to fix damages. “We’re trying to stop them as much as possible,” Siddiqi said, “so that we can do it [repairs] and not get charged for it.”

Upon visiting 1055 University Avenue several times in June, it was discovered that there were indeed repair crews hired by Highbridge Apartments LLC working inside the building. There were also workers hired by HPD on the property, and many tenants expressed uncertainty about whether the bulk of the repair work in their building was being performed by their landlord or by the city.

Highbridge Apartments LLC currently owes the city more than $100,000 in emergency repairs costs.

City Offers Shelter, With Mixed Reactions

In May, several tenants called My9 News about the deteriorating conditions inside their home, and the news station sent a reporter and cameras inside to capture the damage. The My9 report expressed criticism not only of Highbridge Apartments LLC, but also of the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and commissioner Robert Hess, for moving tenants into 1055 University Avenue and paying almost $1000 each month to Khan to rent the apartments.

A DHS spokesperson told the Horizon there were 14 families in the building who were part of the Housing Stability Plus (HSP) program, in which the city helps families move from shelters into permanent housing and pays a portion of the monthly rent to landlords.
The day after the My9 report aired, DHS began contacting HSP tenants in the building in person, as well as in writing, informing them of their option to leave their apartments.  “If you wish, the Department of Homeless Services is prepared to move you into a hotel tonight,” reads a May 24, 2007 letter written by Rick Chandler, Assistant Commissioner for Housing and Policy Placement at DHS.  “DHS will provide hotel lodgings for you while we work to place you in a new apartment.”

At the bottom of the letter,  tenants were given four options and asked to check one: Moving immediately into a hotel and obtaining a new apartment; obtaining a new apartment, but without moving to a hotel first; moving to a hotel at a later date, rather than immediately; or not moving at all.

Michelle Campbell, who lives on the second floor of the building, said that since HSP tenants received that initial letter, DHS workers had arrived at 1055 University Avenue on several occasions with vans to take them to a hotel in Brooklyn, a shelter, or an HPD apartment.  Campbell and another HSP tenant said that DHS telephoned them daily urging them to move out of their apartments.
On June 4, DHS sent a second letter to tenants who had not yet moved. “We are sending you this letter now,” it reads in part, “so we can finalize plans on how we can best help you.”  The letter acknowledges that the tenants had chosen not to move, and offers them two options: Move to an HPD shelter apartment and receive assistance in applying for Section 8 and permanent housing; or remain in their homes and search for a new apartment.

The letter indicates that the department would provide a housing specialist to help tenants find a new place to live, and that tenants could transfer their HSP assistance over to their new home.

But Campbell said that, in contrast to the tone of these letters, her in-person contact with DHS has taken the form of the department pressuring her and other tenants to leave, rather than merely presenting them with the option to do so. She said said DHS workers had told her that if she didn’t leave, her HSP assistance would run out and she would likely end up in the shelter system anyway.

Another HSP tenant who preferred to remain anonymous also said the city was pressuring her to leave her apartment, and had given her the option of moving into two shelters, both in Manhattan.  “We are coming from our own apartment,” she said. “If we have to go to a shelter, we shouldn’t have to be put under so many limits and restrictions.”

Two other tenants who spoke with the Horizon said they had taken the option to move to a shelter, and reported a positive experience; they said they found their residencies preferable to living at 1055 University Avenue.

A DHS spokesperson denied that her department was pressuring tenants to leave. “We just wanted to be sure that they are aware of the option,” she said. “If we weren’t doing that, they would be complaining that DHS isn’t doing anything.”

Is Help on the Way?

In April, city council speaker Christine C. Quinn followed up on a promise she made during her 2007 state-of-the-city speech by introducing legislation that would track and penalize landlords who refuse to make necessary repairs: The Safe Housing Act calls for the city to identify the 200 buildings in the city with the worst violations and “target them for aggressive inspection, follow-up, and comprehensive repairs.”

Landlords who refused to fix damages within four months would be forced to pay the city for these damages and would be subject to monitoring for an additional year.

Then, in May, thousands of New Yorkers from all over the city, and from all ages and backgrounds, gathered in lower Manhattan to participate in “New York is Our Home” , a rally to demand affordable housing. Demonstrators who lined 1st Avenue from 14th to 23rd Streets protested against rent increases and gentrification, and also against landlords who allow the condition of their buildings to deteriorate.

Riding a bus from the Bronx to the Manhattan rally along with fellow members of New Settlement Apartment’s Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA) program, Highbridge resident Donna Johnson said that the way to get poor living conditions addressed was for tenants to unite. Johnson note CASA members had sometimes taken the battle to landlords, even going to their homes to demonstrate.

“All we want is for landlords to meet the needs of tenants,” Johnson said. “They want heat and hot water. They want a reasonable home.”