An Update On The Tenants Of 119 E 19th Street

About a month ago, we took a look inside 119 E 19th Street (between Beverley and Albemarle Roads), and discussed allegations made by tenants against the building’s landlord, Moshe Piller. At the time, tenants were collaborating with New York Communities for Change to try and set up a meeting with Piller, and that meeting has finally happened.

After their demonstration on July 11, tenants sent a letter to Piller, the full text of which can be seen here. “We demand to live in a safe and well maintained building environment,” the letter says. “We pay you our rent each month – if we do not we are quickly taken to court— yet you and your management company fail at every step to provide adequate services.”

In addition, as promised, Councilmember Mathieu Eugene reached out to Piller. Steve Wieser, the tenants’ NYCC community organizer, and a spokesperson from Eugene’s office both said Piller initially asked that NYCC not take part in the talks, but the Councilmember insisted they stay on board.

On August 5, Piller, his management company head Mike, seven tenants, and NYCC sat down for negotiations. Steve says Councilmember Eugene was not present, however, as a result of a shooting in the community. We have reached out to Eugene’s office and Chief of Staff, and are awaiting further details.

As for what Piller agreed to:

• He will fix the stairs.
• He will replace the security doors leading from stairwells to apartments.
• He will put in an application to be an FTAP building.
• He will install roof locks and a roof alarm.
• He will replace lightbulbs in the fixtures outside the building.
• He will cut the grass near the building.
• He will take action if the person providing janitorial services in the building is not keeping it clean.

And what he didn’t:

• He will not fix the elevator. Piller said when the elevator breaks, the service company responds quickly enough to calls.

While the elevator issue will be another bridge to cross, a list of apartments and repairs needed was given to Piller, and Steve says NYCC will be watching closely in the coming month to make sure repairs are in fact done. And they ought to get to work–the building has racked up another 22 violations since the July 11 demonstration, several of which are lead paint-related.

While Steve says crews were working in the building even before August 5, the repairs must have been done in individual apartments. When we stopped in today, the stairwells smelled like urine, the stairs were still cracked, and there were holes in the floor. The door to the roof was open, and we came across a man sleeping on a landing next to a dripping skylight. A tenant we spoke to said he’d seen a crew in the building only once recently.

Not all is lost, though–Steve says progress at 119 is actually moving along at a better pace than at Flatbush Gardens, where he helped tenants fight for repairs last year.

“Moshe and Mike were upset that the tenants went and called the news,” Steve says. “They said they would have had a sit down meeting if tenants had just asked. Tenants doubted that, as problems had been left to fester even after tenants had called the management company. For example, one tenant’s apartment hadn’t been painted in over 15 years, and they painted it last week.

“All I know for sure,” he says, “is that before we had the press out, they were content to let the building sit how it was. Now that tenants took action, they’re having their problems fixed.”

If tenants keep applying pressure to Piller and his associates, it seems like they’re well on their way to fixing their home–but of course, we look forward to seeing more obvious results over the next several weeks.