Landlord Sends Eviction Notices To Former Shelter Residents The Day Before Thanksgiving

A number of residents at 60 Clarkson Avenue, all of them former shelter residents, received eviction notices the day before Thanksgiving, according to Gothamist. The building was contracted as a homeless shelter by the DHS until the end of October, but many of the shelter residents are suing to stay in their apartments as paying tenants.

The site is owned by Isaac Hersko, who runs several other cluster site shelters in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Ditmas Park. He also owns several conventional apartment buildings in the area and has been sued multiple times for substandard conditions.

Since the beginning of November, residents have been dealing with a lack of heat and utility shutoffs. Current residents have been asked to vacate the building by December 31st.

Gothamist reports,

Legal Aid lawyers have filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent Hersko from taking any action against the residents and tenants until the lawsuit is settled. A judge put off a decision on that request, but issued a temporary restraining order pausing the eviction clock until an early January hearing.

In the meantime, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is paying the electricity of four households that lost power, and is helping others sort out account issues, according to a spokeswoman. A National Grid spokeswoman declined to comment on how residents’ cooking gas came to be shut off, saying customer information is confidential.

This is not the first time that we’ve seen landlords in the area being sued for failing to rectify terrible living conditions, but it is concerning to see the DHS subsidizing properties such as this one as temporary shelters.