|
Cold Holidays for Low-Income Tenants In El Barrio |
|
|
|
|
NYLJ
|
|
Thursday, December 15, 2005 |
 Residents of El Barrio gather in a candlelit vigil protesting poor heating conditions in their building. Photo: Marina Ortiz/ EastHarlemPreservation.org |
 mid the freezing temperatures last night dozens of community resident in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) gathered to protest insufficient heating in their respective apartment buildings. A group calling themselves Movement for Justice in El Barrio formed a candlelit vigil to bring their complain against landlords Steve Kessner and Ivan Sun to the public so as to avoid another Christmas without heat and hot water, according to a statement released.
Gelacio Velasco, who lives in 215 East 117th Street has fought Kessner for other repairs in addition to the faulty heating, demonstrating “Kessner's negligence and stubborn resistance to providing basic necessities to his low-income immigrant tenants,” according to the statement.
When he took Kessner to court three months ago he hadn't had heat or hot water for three years. Under the threat of the court, the boiler was fixed -- only to break again two weeks later. Gelacio went back to bathing in water he heats for himself on the stove. But he is fed up. Ivan Sun supplies sporadic and inadequate heat to his tenants and they often jump out of cold showers into cold apartments.
According to the Mayor's Management Report in Fiscal Year 2005, close to 125,000 heat and hot water complaints were placed with the department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) from families suffering under freezing temperatures with no place to escape from the cold. Under New York City housing law, a lack of heat or hot water during the "Heat Season" is considered an emergency condition and must be corrected by the landlord within 24 hours of receipt of a complaint, otherwise it must be corrected by HPD itself under their Emergency Repair Program.
Many are wondering why Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign to build “affordable” housing didn’t also include a thorough investigation by HPD of the existing housing, especially in the city’s poor and working-class communities.
“Although the policy might look good on paper, low-income immigrants and people of color in El Barrio will tell anyone how rarely those laws are enforced and for how many months, even years, they have gone without heat or hot water, even after placing complaints with the city's hotline, 311,” according to the statement.
As the first action in the Campaign against Frozen Homes, members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio will initiated this candlelight march, starting at St. Cecilia's church and making stops at buildings without heat or hot water. They demanded that both landlords, Steve Kessner and Ivan Sun, “relent in their Scrooge campaigns and provide relief from the cold this holiday season.”
For more information, Contact: Juan Haro, before 7:00 PM: (212) 561-0555; after 7:00 PM: (646) 271-9646
|
