Read the Letter Here - New York Legal Assistance Group

 YISROEL SCHULMAN, ESQ.
President & Attorney-in-Charge
By E-mail
November 16, 2012
Chairman John B. Rhea
New York City Housing Authority
250 Broadway, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10007
Re:
Rent Obligations of NYCHA Residents Affected by Sandy
Dear Chairman Rhea:
The New York Legal Assistance Group is a non-profit organization that provides free
legal services to low-income New Yorkers. We represent a class of disabled NYCHA tenants in
Brito v. NYCHA, involving the chronic disrepair of NYCHA elevators. Today we write on
behalf of all NYCHA residents living in developments severely affected by Sandy, whose homes
were without electricity, heat, water, elevator service, and other essential services for days and
weeks following the storm. As of this date, thousands of NYCHA residents are living without
heat, hot water, functioning elevators, and/or fully restored electricity.
We are aware of NYCHA’s decision, announced earlier this week, to provide tenants rent
credits for days in which they lacked essential services. However, we join with New York City
Advocate Bill de Blasio in calling for NYCHA to make these credits effective immediately,
rather than waiting until next year. In the words of the Public Advocate, “It is unacceptable to
charge full rent up front for tenants who in many cases are still living in the dark. . . . No tenant
in public housing should be forced to pay the City for rent they do not actually owe.” We
believe that NYCHA should give a minimum of a month’s credit to all tenants who have lived
without essential services for so long, and more if the disruptions continue.
Additionally, we urge NYCHA to issue a clear statement immediately to tenants in
affected developments that because the rent credits will be effective immediately, rent withheld
for the period without essential services will not be considered delinquent and will not be used as
a basis for any adverse legal action against them.
To do otherwise would be unjust. The very conditions that have made apartments
uninhabitable for many NYCHA tenants have also made it near impossible for some of them to
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pay their rent. We here provide some examples of the hardships suffered by residents of Red
Hook West.
Ms. Vera Esannason has never been late paying her rent in the past, but fears that she will
be unable to pay her next rent bill because she had to spend significant portions of her SSD
check to pay $500 for alternate housing for more than two weeks after the storm, and for cabfare
back and forth between her temporary housing and her NYCHA apartment. NYCHA instructed
Ms. Esannason to evacuate her apartment at 135 Richards Street in NYCHA’s Red Hook West
development on Monday, October 29, 2012, before NYCHA shut down the building’s electrical
systems and elevators prior to the storm. Ms. Esannason remained Monday night, but left early
on Tuesday morning, October 30th to stay with a friend whose apartment had electricity and heat.
Ms. Esannason was displaced from her apartment for more than 2 weeks; she was unable to
return until electricity and heat were restored on Wednesday, November 14th. Hot water was not
restored to her building until Thursday, November 15th.
Ms. Julia Perry, an 81-year-old diabetic resident of the Red Hook West development, is
also unable to pay her next rent bill because she was forced to spend significant amounts of her
SSD check on alternate housing and to replace her clothing, which was all destroyed in the
storm. Ms. Perry evacuated her apartment, Unit 1C, at 17 Lorraine Street at NYCHA’s
direction, and paid $100 per week to stay with her sister elsewhere in Brooklyn. Although
electricity was restored to Ms. Perry’s building on Sunday, November 11th, Ms. Perry had to
return to stay with her sister because her apartment was simply too cold without heat, which was
not restored until Thursday, November 15th. The walls and floors in her first floor apartment
were covered in rust-colored water when Ms. Perry returned to her apartment, and her clothes
and furniture were all wet.
Under conditions like these, residents are entitled to withhold rent from NYCHA
immediately, instead of waiting until January to receive their credits. NYCHA’s Resident Lease
obligates NYCHA to “maintain the common areas of [each tenant’s] Development in a decent,
safe and sanitary condition,” NYCHA Resident Lease ¶ 13(a), and to promptly repair premises
where “conditions are created which are hazardous to life, health, or safety of the occupants,” id.
¶ 14(b). The Lease further provides for abatement of rent for “the period exceeding a reasonable
time for repairs in which such repairs were not made. Id. ¶ 14(d). Because of the extraordinary
degree of suffering endured by these tenants, a full month’s credit should be extended.
To protect the rights of NYCHA tenants affected by Sandy, we urge NYCHA to declare
that rent credits are effective immediately. Though it may take time to calculate credits, no
NYCHA resident of an affected development should be penalized in any manner, including in
any future nonpayment or delinquency proceeding, for withholding rent. Further, NYCHA must
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provide notice of the same, including the manner of calculating rent credits, to all its residents, so
that they may have clarity in this time of difficulty.
Please provide a prompt response so that we can advise our clients appropriately. We are
available for a meeting or call regarding these issues at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Jane Greengold Stevens
Director, Special Litigation Unit
New York Legal Assistance Group
jstevens@nylag.org
Kamilla Sjödin
Supervising Attorney, Housing Project
New York Legal Assistance Group
ksjodin@nylag.org
cc:
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
Steven Rappaport, Esq.
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