The group at 2185 Valentine Avenue, along with nascent tenant associations in 22 other buildings, have joined forces to form the Parkash Tenant Coalition, an alliance designed to pressure their landlord, Ved Parkash, into making repairs, increasing security, and pursuing less aggressive legal action against them. The bottom line is that before all this started, we didn’t have any information.” “Little by little, we’re starting to understand our rights and the laws. “It’s a process,” said Felix Meleo, 52, an elevator repairman who has lived in the six-story apartment building in the northwest Bronx for 17 years. Sixteen fellow tenants gathered around her to air grievances and map out next steps in demanding better treatment from their landlord. Laughter echoed in the lobby of 2185 Valentine Avenue as Inalda Aguilar, a home health aide, scurried across the linoleum floor to mimic the rats that infest her apartment. This report is the story of both the piece and the wider picture. He is just one piece of a wider housing picture that blights the Bronx: reinforcing poverty and diminishing quality of life for inhabitants whose ability to pay the rent is being rapidly outpaced by a booming real estate economy. A Bronx Ink investigation has found his buildings to be riddled with routine complaints of broken elevators, invasive mold, water damage and more serious reports of collapsing ceilings, illegally sub-divided apartments and lead exposure. We visited tenants to profile their buildings (you can read those to the right), with many telling us that while Parkash was slow to respond to complaints, he aggressively litigated against those whose rent was overdue. In 2015, Ved Parkash was crowned the worst landlord in New York City.
0 kommentar(er)
