The property manager of several local apartment buildings has taken issue with an article in last month’s Highbridge Horizon. 

After the May issue of the Horizon reported that several tenants were alleging harassment at the hands of Alliance Housing II Associates,  and property manager Miriam contacted the newspaper to dispute specific tenant allegations as well as statements made in the article.

Last month’s issue reported on the case of Carmen Vasquez, of 88 W. 167th Street, against whom an eviction proceeding commenced by Alliance had been upheld. Vasquez said that landlords repeatedly stalled in submitting documentation to the city until the deadline had passed, which meant Vasquez lost her Section 8 eligibility and was required to pay market- value- rent in order to stay in her home. Vasquez alleged the delay in submitting the paperwork was deliberate, because Rodriguez was seeking to move in a non-Section 8 tenant who would pay higher rent.

 Rodriguez said it was actually Vasquez who didn’t provide the necessary paperwork in time to recertify. “I would like to remind Ms. Vasquez that HUD has income limits that all property managers of Section 8 based developments must follow in order to move [in] new residents,” Rodriguez said in a letter faxed to the Horizon. “Section 8 subsidy is for low income households. Therefore ,it is impossible for management to evict any current resident based upon Ms. Vasquez’ accusation.”

Rodriguez said in a telephone interview last month that Vasquez was sharing the apartment with her husband without reporting his income (Section 8 recipients are required to document the income of everyone living in their home in order to maintain their eligibility for assistance).  Vasquez denies Rodriguez’ claim, and the Horizon pointed out last month that no mention of an unauthorized person sharing the premises with Vasquez is made in a September 20, 2006 letter from Rodriguez informing Vasquez that her lease was being terminated.

In response to that observation, Rodriguez faxed to the Horizon an additional letter addressed to Vasquez. The letter, dated roughly three months earlier in June of 2006, also informs Vasquez that her lease is being terminated— effective July 17, 2006.  The letter said Vasquez was in violation of her lease because: She had allowed an unauthorized person to live with her for several months; her apartment was a consistent source of excessive noise, including from a stereo; and she had failed to keep her apartment in clean and proper shape.

When asked why none of these three claims were mentioned in the letter she wrote Vasquez three months later, Rodriguez responded that Vasquez had already been made aware of the violations and there was no need to mention them a second time.
Vasquez scoffs at the accusations. She said she has the right to play music and have guests over, just as tenants of other apartments in the area do frequently. And the damages, she says, lingered because management did not perform repairs.
Rodriguez also responded to claims made by tenant Melinda Rodriguez, who had charged that her landlord frequently harassed her by taking her to housing court and leaving her notices asking for large sums of money at once.

“She is one of those tenants that will not pay the rent for several months,” Miriam Rodriguez wrote in her letter to this newspaper. “We commence legal proceedings, and she has public assistance make one lump sum payment to pay off her arrears. After that, the cycle begins again and we find ourselves in court for the same reason.”

Miriam Rodriguez faxed to the Horizon housing court documents from previous years indicating her tenant acknowledged owing, or was ordered by the court to pay, sums as high as $1706.50.

Melinda Rodriguez countered that she signed the court forms strictly so that she could present them to her public assistance worker,  who could then evaluate whether or not she actually owed the money. In fact, Rodriguez said, she was not behind on rent as her landlord alleged.

Melinda Rodriguez and Carmen Vasquez are hardly the only Alliance tenants to end up in court in recent years. A search of the computer database at Bronx County housing court indicates that Alliance Housing II Associates has brought hundreds of cases against tenants since 2000.

Rodriguez said the high number of cases Alliance launched against tenants was due to tenant negligence. “Many of these cases are for payment or no compliance,” Miriam Rodriguez said. “Before we commence a court case, we contact the residents on numerous occasions.”

An Alliance tenant also contacted the Horizon  after reading last  month’s article. Carmen Pastrana of 1147 Woodycrest Avenue, who has been a tenant of Alliance for more than 20 years, wrote a letter to the Horizon in which she described Miriam Rodriguez as a “beautiful lady who has a very warm heart.”  Pastrana supplied other letters of support from tenants, at  least some of which were from close friends or family of Pastrana.

 In reference to Vasquez’ allegations, Pastrana wrote: “The part where it says she raised the rent more than she supposed to is not true. I know that to be a lie. Everybody gets their certification papers in October. They have until February 10 of the new year to get whatever papers are necessary. So if we do not have all our papers by that time, HUD, not Mrs. Rodriguez, will raise your rent to fair market value.”
In an interview with the Horizon, Pastrana acknowledged that she did not know Carmen Vasquez or the other tenants who alleged harassment personally; she said she might recognize them by face.

Pastrana said she first met Rodriguez when Rodriguez was a secretary for Alliance at their River Avenue office. She said her landlord was always responsive when she requested rent balance sheets or asked for repairs. Pastrana said Rodriguez had not asked her to contact the Horizon-- that she had done so of her own accord  after a copy of the Horizon was inserted in her mailbox.