[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=god_eHnU3pE]<\/p>\n
The electrical box in the basement of multifamily brownstone on 46th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, looks like a middle-school science fair project gone horribly wrong. The door to the box is ajar and a cheap plastic fan, positioned only inches from the fuses, desperately tries to keep the wiring from catching fire when it sparks and overheats, plunging the building\u2019s 51 apartments into darkness and threatening to set the entire structure ablaze.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLast night was so bad, the lights were going on and off every ten minutes,\u201d said 20-year-old Riccey Trelles, a recent college graduate who lives with her family on the first floor. \u201cIt was pitch-black; I couldn\u2019t see the person across from me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the darkness, Trelles was up until almost two a.m. making posters and banners for the following day\u2019s protest to expose her building\u2019s slumlord, Orazio Petito, and implore city officials to intervene in a case of housing violations that tenants are now describing as human rights abuses.<\/span><\/p>\n As foreclosures continue to displace millions and put historic pressure on the nation\u2019s rental market, slumlords now have more opportunity than ever to prey on the most vulnerable of tenants. The problem is especially bad in an owner\u2019s market like New York City, where average rent price increased more in the second quarter of 2012 than in any other city in the country, sending landlords into a frenzy to evict old tenants–especially those with stabilized rent–and jack up the prices for newcomers. But despite a vicious landlord and a city that prefers aiding the housing market’s rise than enforcing tenants’ rights, Trelles and her neighbors are fighting back: speaking out, occupying an assemblymen\u2019s office and launching a rent strike that tenants hope will spread across Brooklyn.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are people,\u201d said Sara Lopez, a retired public employee who was the first to begin withholding rent payments almost two years ago. \u201cWe deserve to live with dignity. We pay for our apartments, so we deserve our rights as tenants.\u201d After months of door knocking by Lopez and Trelles\u2019 mother, Sue, the rent strike now includes 80 families across three of Petito\u2019s buildings\u2014and Lopez hopes to spread the movement to his other properties.<\/span><\/p>\n Petito, for his part, is a classic exploitative building owner. Ranking 51 on city\u2019s watch list of worst slumlords, he owns approximately twenty buildings across the boroughs and dozens of small real estate corporations that flit in and out of existence like fireflies and list PO Boxes for addresses. He\u2019s frequently fined and issued court dates, which he rarely shows up to, and he seems quick to take out million-dollar mortgages that he never repays. The only time his tenants see him is when rent is due, or\u2014more recently\u2014when he knocks on the doors of striking families and tries to intimidate them into paying.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo many threats, so much abuse,\u201d said an elderly resident who asked not to be named. \u201cHe said he was going to evict me; he told me that he was going to call immigration on me.\u201d As a newer resident, she was paying $1,600 a month for an apartment that rarely has heat, hot water or electricity before she joined the strike despite the barrage of threats. Many of the building\u2019s tenants lack residency papers, and Petito is more than willing to wave forged eviction notices in front of tenants who speak little English.<\/span><\/p>\n Like the historic rent strikes in Lower East Side before WWI or in Harlem during the 1960s, female tenants of color are leading the grassroots organizing at Petito\u2019s buildings. Many from Occupy Sunset Park have joined in to support, tying this slumlord\u2019s abuse to the broader context of housing injustice, one that includes the current foreclosure crisis but is, in truth, a constant reality in a country where private property is a right but a family\u2019s need for shelter is considered a privilege.<\/span><\/p>\n The building has had problems for years, but the conditions have worsened since the buildings fell into foreclosure.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the summer, it\u2019s so hot that I lie in bed and cover myself with ice cubes,\u201d said Riccey Trelles. \u201cAnd in the winter, I slept with four quilts, a pair of sweats, a sweater, a scarf and two pairs of socks.\u201d Others tell stories of mice, rats, roaches, bed bugs, and no exterminator to be found despite daily 311 calls. The mounds of garbage piled in the locked basement fester and stink when the temperature soars. With a broken boiler, the showers are freezing when the temperature plummets.<\/span><\/p>\n The city is well aware of the problems. On the Department of Buildings Web site, the entry for 553 46th Street reveals a slew of violations described as: \u201cOPEN\u2014NO COMPLIANCE RECORDED. Severity: HAZARDOUS.\u201d At 545 46th Street, Petito has racked up more than $100,000 of debt in fines for violations\u2014all unpaid. The entry for 557 46th Street shows a complaint issued a few days ago: \u201cCaller states that the electrical power for the building is defective [and] that FDNY responded and stated that wiring upgrade was needed for 553, 557 & 545.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Residents say a fire marshal recently declared the building an imminent hazard and suggested that Lopez call the Red Cross and see if she could get all the tenants temporarily relocated, yet the Department of Buildings has yet to send an inspector.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt could take anywhere between three to four weeks to get the inspection,\u201d said a source inside the Department of Buildings. \u201cThe city is slowly getting things done, but there are so many buildings and properties, I think some things fall through the cracks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Can anything make the city move faster?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to a slum landlord,\u201d she said, \u201cwhat happens a lot is it gets exposed in the media, and then the city gets involved because the media is involved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On Thursday, residents invited television crews into the buildings and testified to Petito\u2019s many abuses. Then, just in case the city still didn\u2019t get the message, dozens of tenants paraded through the blistering heat\u2014signs, canes, sun umbrellas and all\u2014to Assemblyman Felix Ortiz\u2019s office, where they occupied the building. One resident\u2019s sign read in Spanish, \u201cIn the winter we freeze and in the summer we roast.” An hour later, the group emerged victorious, having scheduled a sit-down meeting with Ortiz for the coming Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n