Any buyer eyeing a troubled group of East Harlem apartment buildings is being warned that tenants have organized and are pushing for safe, dignified housing.
Last Friday, a crowd gathered outside 1569 Lexington Ave., where tenants, neighbors, and housing advocates stood under a "Buyer Beware" sign as the former Emerald Equity Group properties await a new owner, amNY reported.
What happened?
Tenants from several buildings in the 38-building portfolio rallied after years of complaints about declining living conditions.
With the group foreclosed and in receivership, residents say they want whoever takes over to invest in repairs rather than continue to use the buildings to generate income.
Tenants at five Emerald buildings had carried out a 16-month rent strike that ended during Emerald's bankruptcy in a $500,000 settlement for repairs and rent credits.
"We are organized. We are prepared and we are united," Victoria Washington, a tenant on East 103rd Street and co-founder of the East Harlem Tenant Association, said, per amNY.
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Why does it matter?
Tenants described burst pipes, brown water pouring through apartments, recurring cockroach and mice infestations, extended stretches without gas or hot water, and abandoned units in shocking condition.
Sergio Sorza of Community Voices Heard said the event was a "call for accountability," adding that the "buildings have been passed down from one slumlord to another," amNY reported.
Tenants said apartments were "unlivable" and "inhumane," with families paying full rent while coping with ruined belongings, pests, and utility outages.
Many renters have little control over the spaces where they live, even when simple changes could save money and improve quality of life.
Landlords and property managers have been known to block renters from adopting cost-cutting habits such as gardening and hanging clotheslines to dry laundry, even though those choices can lower household expenses and reduce energy use.
What's being done?
Residents are organizing as they try to influence what happens to the foreclosed properties and who becomes the next owner.
For Washington and her neighbors, the concern is that "other speculative landlords" could buy the buildings without carrying out the renovations residents say are needed, amNY noted.
They are also receiving support from local organizers and city officials. Sorza said outreach is continuing across the portfolio to help empower more tenants, and Washington said Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration has backed organizing efforts.
"Buildings like these can come together to put their building on a path to stable and different ownership," said Cea Weaver, executive director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, according to amNY.
If you're in a similar situation, there are ways to work with landlords or homeowners associations to change outdated restrictions.
"Whoever chooses to buy this building will continuously be held to a higher standard," one tenant said.
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