‘Worst Landlord’ Tenants Say They Room with Roaches and Rats

By JAMIE DELIZ

“Ya no puede caminar,” a line from the famous satirical Spanish folk-song “La Cucharacha,” moves dancers along to its exciting beat and catchy melody about the poor, little cockroach that can’t walk.

Well, over in 5416 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a building owned by Silvershore Properties, most of the tenants claim that “las cucharachas” do indeed, not only walk, but run wild.

This, along with other factors, became the catalyst for tenants and advocates to protest against landlordJonathan Cohen at a press conference in front of the building Thursday afternoon. Cohen was branded the “worst landlord in New York City,” on the 2017 watch list released Tuesday by the Public Advocate’s office.

“The story of Silvershore Properties is simple,” said Public Advocate Letitia James. “It’s the landlord who basically puts profit over people.”

After the list was put out by her office, the Silvershore company contacted James arguing the buildings were already in bad shape when they were bought, and that they were “actively making repairs.”

“But we all know that’s not really true,” countered James.

Tenants say they are forced to do all the work because of no-show supers, which often puts them in danger. They also complain of lack of heat and maintenance repairs, and the presence of strangers doing drugs and exposing themselves in the hallways, and in front of children.

With some 1,090 violations in 19 of his Brooklyn and Queens buildings under his belt, Cohen is accused of vacating his tenants, or “actively buying out tenants,” and “letting the building go,” according to Marcela Martinez, and Pilar De Jesus of the Community Development Project Urban Justice Center.

“It’s really horrendous,” De Jesus added. In the past, tenants have tried to contact the landlord or maintenance, but no one calls back; and in the rare instance when someone does reach out, it’s someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, the language most of the long-standing tenants speak.

“Quereos sentirnos seguros en nuestros hogares,” a sign read, which translates to, “We want to feel safe in our homes.”

After the conference, tenants gave reporters a tour of their apartments.

Petra Garcia, 51, a single mother of 11 and 14-year-old daughters,says she  has lived with pest infestation for nearly 24 years, and refuses to pay more than $736.21, the cost of her rented second-floor apartment, because the problem has not been fixed..

“You can smell the rats,” she said, waving her hand in front of her nose.

Garcia said that she and her daughters often find dead rats and baby mice lying on the floors and sometimes their sleep is disturbed by the sounds of squeaking. Once she noted nibble marks on her bags. To keep rodents out, she added, she stuffs scouring pads in holes in walls and floors.

Downstairs in Gloria Benitez’s apartment, where she lives with her husband, and three children part of her ceiling collapsed three weeks earlier. Hot water has been leaking from the ceiling ever since the accident, she added.

After a long while Silvershore did some work on the apartment and granted Benitez a reduction in her rent from $1,056 to $968 a month.

“People use the halls as bathrooms,” she also told Stephanie Lewkowitz, a member of the organization Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Besides trying to raise the rents with no improvements, some workers have told the tenants that “they should learn how to speak English,” said Lewkowitz.

Photo by Jamie Delizof disrepair in Garcia apartment