Author Archives | Hibah Ansari

Leveling the Legal Playing Field: Tenants Fight for Homes with the Help of Right to Counsel

Elizabeth Thompson, 72, has been in and out of court for around 31 years. She finally got an exemption for a lawyer after Right to Counsel.
Zachary Cassel, The Bronx Ink

Elizabeth Thompson, a 72-year-old retired health care clerk, had been in and out of housing court since 1988. Usually, it was because her landlord claimed she was behind in the rent. 

It was a battle that Thompson largely fought on her own. Until recently.

This past March, Thompson’s landlord took her to court again because she owed $817 in rent, according to court documents. Thompson is on a fixed income from social security and it doesn’t always arrive at the same time, she said. At first, she represented herself.

But she faced little success in court and decided she needed a lawyer.

“They say I’m not qualified for a lawyer,” she said.

Thompson received too much money in retirement from social security to qualify for a free lawyer in housing court, but she couldn’t afford one on her own.

New York City passed its historic Universal Access to Legal Representation law, also known as Right to Counsel, in 2017. It ensures free legal services to low-income Bronx tenants living in four ZIP codes, 10457, 10462, 10467 and 10468. In just two years, evictions in the Bronx decreased by 23%, according to the New York City Office of Civil Justice Annual Report. In a city where two-thirds of residents rent, the Bronx claimed the highest decrease in evictions since Right to Counsel was implemented.

Currently, Right to Counsel is effective in these areas of the Bronx.
Hibah Ansari, The Bronx Ink

The Right to Counsel NYC Coalition advocated for the law. They’re now campaigning to expand it so that more tenants, like Thompson, can be eligible. They partner with other organizations like Legal Services NYC.

Right to Counsel gives power back to tenants, especially as they face landlords represented by powerful law firms, according to Heejung Kook, the housing unit deputy director for Legal Services NYC.

“No one really gives advice to the tenants,” Kook said. “Once the attorney gets involved through the tenant’s side, the tenant knows what their defenses are. So we can try to negotiate for better terms, or often just to fight hard to keep their apartment.”

Thompson asked the Northwest Bronx Community Clergy Association for help, and they directed her to the Legal Aid Society. Although she didn’t qualify because her income was too high, she spoke with a supervisor and was approved anyway.

Everything changed after she found representation, Thompson said.

“The court lawyer went against our landlord’s lawyer and let him know that he had to do,” she said.

Nadia Hasan, the supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society NYC, took up her case.

“A lot of it has to do with just having someone on your side, someone listening and explaining things to you,” Hasan said about Right to Counsel. She added that tenants also get better terms with an attorney present.

Both parties have to comply with the agreement Hasan fought for — Thompson will follow a payment plan while the landlord addresses the repairs.

Brian Stark, a lawyer for her landlord, according to court documents, could not be reached for comment.

The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition is a grassroots social justice organization. Part of their mission is to advocate for tenants’ rights in the Bronx.

The Bronx has had the most evictions out of any borough for the last six years, according to the Office of Civil Justice report. Before the law was passed, city marshals carried out 7,438 evictions in the Bronx, compared to 5,984 eviction in Brooklyn and 2,843 in Manhattan.

To qualify for free legal services, a family of two would have to make an income of less than $32,480, according to the New York City Housing Court. Thompson earns about $40,000 per a year.

The Right to Counsel NYC Coalition wants to increase the income eligibility so more tenants like Thompson can be covered. For a family of two, the income limit would be $67,640.

Thompson’s building is owned by Claflin Apartments LLC, which is registered to Moshe Piller, according to state business records. 

The Bronx Ink previously reported on the conditions of Piller’s buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx in 2010. At the time, tenants complained of faulty wiring, a collapsed ceiling and clogged plumbing.

Thompson, who’s lived in the same Fordham apartment for 35 years, had similar complaints about her apartment.

Some days, the boiler in the building worked. Other days it didn’t. The electricity would occasionally go out — one time for eleven hours. Mice came through a hole under her kitchen sink. 

Zachary Cassel, The Bronx Ink

Inell Tolliver, 57, also lives in Thompson’s building. Tolliver said that the other tenants wouldn’t know how their landlord was responding to violations without Thompson, who tried to set up a meeting with building management.

There have been 286 complaints registered against Thompson’s building since 1991, according to the Department of Buildings. There have been nine since January. The most frequent complaint is that the elevator stops working. The building has six floors.

The superintendent could not be reached for comment.

Tolliver cited mold, scraped floors and a locked laundry room in the basement. She also said that the hot water doesn’t always work and it’s been a recurring issue.

When the Bronx Ink tested Thompson’s sink, the water became warm but would not get hot.

Neither Piller or a representative from M. P. Management could be reached for comment.

By 2022, all tenants who are income-eligible in New York City should have access to free legal representation, according to the New York City Housing Court. But even now, as evictions are decreasing, more than half of the tenants at the Bronx Housing Court did not know about their eligibility for a free lawyer before arriving to court, according to a survey conducted by the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition.

For the first time, funding for expansion of legal services for low-income New York City tenants exceeded $100 million in 2018. The city expects to increase funding until all low-income tenants are covered in 2022, according to the Office of Civil Justice. Legal Services NYC also receives funding from the federal and state government as well as charity organizations.

Kook has some doubts about Right to Counsel’s ability to expand to all ZIP codes by 2022. But she added that if the city continues to fund and support Right to Counsel providers in the long term, they can effectively expand their services and decrease evictions across the city.

“Anyone can change the law,” Kook said. “We’re really hoping that the city will continue doing this kind of work.”

Thompson has not been to court since July. Her attorney helped her reach an agreement that will keep her out if she keeps up with rent.

Posted in Housing Injustice Right to Counsel, Special Reports0 Comments

The lasting legacy of U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano

U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano’s office in the 15th Congressional District overlooks the Bruckner Expressway in the hub of the South Bronx.

A three-foot ball covered in gold leaf was ceremoniously lowered into the river about 10 miles from Hunts Point in April of 1999. It was the first Bronx River Golden Ball celebrating the environmental restoration of the popular waterway.

U.S. Congressman Jose Serrano, a tireless advocate for the river, waited downstream with community members at Hunts Point Riverside Park for the ball to wash ashore. He had been responsible for securing upwards of $30 million in federal funds for this day to happen.

Whether he was working to create oyster reefs, parks, wetlands or a revitalized shoreline, Serrano, soon to set to step down from Congress, leveraged resources to improve environmental conditions in a district that has been subject to injustice in more than one way.

The Bronx River Golden Ball celebrated these first steps.

“He didn’t want to leave,” Maria Torres, president of The Point Community Development Corporation remembered about that day. “A lot of elected officials, they come, they do their thing, they do their speech and everything, but he had such a good time. He continued hanging out with everybody.”

Serrano stuck around with the people from the community, because he was one of the people of the community,” Torres said.

In many ways, Serrano’s enthusiasm for cleaning up the natural environment mirrored his passion for conquering corruption in the South Bronx district he has served as an elected official for the last 44 years.

He was 47-years-old when he was first elected to the 15th Congressional District, the sole Puerto Rican-born member of the House of Representatives at the time. Now 75, he is the most senior Hispanic Democrat and longest-serving Puerto Rican in Congress.

During his 30 years in Congress, and 14 years before that as New York State Assemblyman, constituents report that he kept an unwavering eye on his mission to tackle crime, corruption and toxic truck emissions from Hunts Point Market.

“The guy’s never forgotten where he comes from,” Torres said.

Last March, Serrano announced that he will not seek re-election in 2020, citing his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. It hasn’t yet affected his work, he said, but he can’t predict how fast it will advance.

“To have gone from Mayaguez, to Mill Brook Houses, to the New York State Assembly, to the halls of Congress is truly the American Dream,” Serrano said in his statement last spring. “I am honored to have had your trust over the years.”

Born on October 24, 1943 in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Serrano told The New York Times that he moved to the South Bronx with his family when he was seven years old. He learned English by singing along to Frank Sinatra records.

Serrano moved with his family to Mill Brook Houses, a public housing project in the South Bronx, and later attended Lehman College in 1961. Three years later he left to join the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Long before he was elected to Congress, Serrano served as an administrator for Community School District 7, as well as the chair for the South Bronx Community Corporation. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1975.

Fernando Ferrer, former Bronx borough president and Serrano’s contemporary, reminisced about collaborating with his contemporary on many projects that improved road safety, especially the renewal of the Grand Concourse Boulevard.

“He’ll be remembered most for being very serious and straightforward and honest about his dealings,” said Ferrer, who has known Serrano for more than 50 years. “Coming from a place that produced more than one scandal, that’s commendable.”

Serrano was first elected to represent the 18th Congressional District in the Bronx in 1990, winning 92 percent of the vote. The seat opened up after the incumbent, Rep. Robert Garcia, was jailed for extortion in the Wedtech scandal. Wedtech Corporation, a Bronx-based military contractor, was charged with obtaining government contracts by bribing public officials in 1986.

“We both succeeded politicians who had been tainted by scandal so there was an enormous set of expectations for both of us to turn this around and to give people some degree of hope again,” Ferrer, who replaced Stanley Simon as Bronx Borough President after Simon’s criminal connection to the Wedtech was exposed, said. “I’ll let history judge me, but Joe Serrano delivered — and then some.”

While Serrano stuck to his scruples as an elected official in the South Bronx, some expressed frustration when the Congressman refused to compromise and make deals happen, according to Paul Lipson, Serrano’s former chief of staff and founder of The Point. Lipson added that Serrano’s moral approach to politics made him proud to work with the congressman.

“The moral dimension of politics seemed to rise to the surface in every conversation with him — whether it was the Iraq war, whether it was combating poverty and injustice, whether it was this concept of environmental equity,” Lipson said. “He would be the prophetic voice for the moral case on all these issues.”

That voice was not just for the people of South Bronx, Lipson said. Serrano played a huge role in the debate for the equity for citizens of Puerto Rico. Every time Serrano was approached with a bill, Lipson said he made sure that Puerto Rico would be included as a co-equal commonwealth of the U.S.

“He fought back for people who really don’t have a voice. They don’t have a voting member, so Serrano very often assumed that mantle,” Lipson said.

Serrano is also the Dean of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and served as its chair from 1993 to 1994. As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, Serrano became known for advocating for Puerto Rico. Recently, he pushed to have the Trump administration improve relief efforts after Hurricane Maria as chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee.

Maria Torres attributed much of The Point’s success in environmental justice issues to Serrano’s support.

Because of his illness, Torres said he hasn’t been as visible in the community. But he still remains accessible through his staff members who often stop by at The Point down the street from Serrano’s office for lunch — a luxury Torres said she’ll miss.

Ramon Cabral, deputy director for the 15th district, said Serrano’s commitment to the people inspires him and his fellow staff.

“We’re still doing the work that we have to do,” Cabral said. “We will until the last day that we’re in office. We do hope that there will still be someone here looking out for the interests of the South Bronx.”

Ten Democratic candidates have confirmed their run for the 15th district seat, but the pressure to honor Serrano’s legacy lingers.

Torres said that Serrano’s popularity will be hard to match, as well as his ability to get an older, conservative constituency on board with a lot of his liberal policies.

“He has that ability to tell the history of the community,” Torres said. “They were there too, and he was there with them, whether he was hosting old Latin shows, or out there fighting for environmental justice.”

Ferrer added that a sense of history and a connectedness with the people of the Bronx will be missed with Serrano’s retirement.

“That frankly is something we’ll all miss in politics,” Ferrer said, “somebody who came up the hard way, has relationships with people of long standing, so that when he talks about his district you have a reliance that he knows what he’s talking about because it’s people-centric. It’s not aimed at a focus group or some kind of powerful constituency — it comes from people.”

Twenty years after the first Bronx River Golden Ball,  Ferrer saw the aging congressman at the funeral of an old friend, George Rodriguez, the chairman of the Bronx Community Board 1.  Serrano knew Rodriguez from their early years in the South Bronx Community Corporation.

“We are both at an age where we go to more funerals than weddings now,” Ferrer said. “Joe stood there in the front of the funeral parlor for hours — in tribute to his old friend.”

Posted in Community Resources, Front Page, Politics, south bronx, Southern Bronx0 Comments

Majora Carter warns of ‘brain drain’ while community members fear displacement

At Majora Carter’s Boogie Down Grind Cafe in Hunts Point, customers can order coffee with oat milk, and drink it by a window bordered by music-themed wallpaper and newsprint, all while listening to the ‘00s R&B they grew up on. There are books and magazines for free on a shelf next to a mess of posters on the wall advertising dating apps and homeowner help. 

Carter may have created a space at her coffee shop for people to work, connect and learn, but the nonprofit advocate-turned-developer from Hunts Point wants other Bronx natives to stay and invest in their community too. 

For Carter, young people don’t see themselves as having any opportunities in the Bronx. Instead, they measure their success by how far away they get away from their neighborhoods, she said.

“That is really sad, that folks just don’t see themselves investing — not just financially but emotionally — in their own neighborhood. And that brings the brain drain,” Carter said.

A mural created by art organization Groundswell NYC, in collaboration with the Majora Carter Group, students from Hyde Leadership Charter School and the New York City Department of Transportation, in Hunts Point. The mural says “You don’t have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one.”

Carter is a real estate developer and consultant who works to create opportunities in development that retain talent. Her coffee shop, for example, offers “the type of experience we used to have to leave the Bronx to experience,” according to the cafe’s website

Boogie Down Grind Cafe is Carter’s most illustrative example of her work to combat the brain drain — she said she took every single dollar after tax from her consulting work and brought it back to invest in her community. But Carter also said creating the Hunts Point Riverside Park and advocating for environmental justice as the executive director for Sustainable South Bronx had made Hunts Point a place worth staying.

“I believe in the promise of America, that everyone has a right to prosperity and happiness for him or herself,” Carter said. “The way that low-status communities are set up —  it absolutely deprives them of their right to do that.”

Carter doesn’t have the data to support her claim that people are leaving the Bronx — that’s according to her husband James Chase who is also vice president of marketing of the Majora Carter Group LLC.

“When Majora speaks at area high schools (as well as similar communities around America) and asks student groups “who intends to go to college?” nearly every hand goes up,” Chase said in an email. “Her standard follow up is, “If, after college, you’re recruited for a high paying job, will you return here?” and every time, almost zero hands go up.”

Carter said her theory of a brain drain comes from what she’s noticed, anecdotally.

“I’ve been all over this country and even in Europe and found people from the Bronx who left,” Carter said.

Carter wants young people in the Bronx to reinvest in their communities and make their homes a place worth staying. Her group is looking into investment strategies that have been proven to create more opportunity. But after all, she said this is still a capitalist country, so young people are going to need to have some money to do so.

But some Bronx residents just don’t have the capability to invest. 

The Bronx population is growing steadily at 26% since 1980 — faster than the citywide growth rate of 22%, according to a report from the New York Comptroller’s Office. Most of that growth has come from people making less than $50,000, according to a report from the Regional Plan Association. 

What’s more, 29% of residents earn salaries below the NYCgov Poverty Measure of $33,562,  according to the Bronx Community District 2 profile. That measure, compared to the official U.S. poverty measure, accounts for the higher cost of housing in New York City, according to the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity website.

Bronx residents are at the highest risk of housing displacement in New York City, according to the Regional Plan Association. The report said 71% of census areas in the Bronx are in danger of being displaced.

All of this adds up to a different picture  — not one of brain drain — but of displacement, said  Maria Torres, president and chief operating officer of The Point Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to youth development and economic revitalization. 

Young people aren’t leaving the Bronx because they’re “too good to be here,” but because they just can’t afford to live in some parts of the Bronx anymore, Torres said.

“This shouldn’t just be a place you just want to run away from,” Torres said. “If we’ve done our jobs right, the kids have an affinity for where they live — they have a pride in this area.”

The Bronx is no different than any area that is struggling with school systems, unemployment and student debt, Torres said. But this doesn’t lead young people to leave — it keeps them close to a home that is far more affordable than any other part of the city.

Development may excite people who have lived through the worst of times in the Bronx, but Torres also said development speculation from outside investors will be the driving force behind people’s departures since affordability in the community will decrease. Strengthening the industry in Hunts Point to make sure people are getting quality jobs and keeping housing affordable keeps displacement at bay, she said.

Carter also said predatory speculators profit by pushing poor people out, but she still feels strongly that combatting the brain drain can create a stable, income-diverse community.

In terms of economic growth, Hunts Point saw 23% of private-sector job increases in the borough and had the most businesses of any neighborhood in the Bronx. Significant job increases were reported in wholesale and retail, trade, social assistance, business services and transportation, according to the Comptroller’s report.

The Point collaborates with community groups, young people and the city to determine what the community actually needs to not only retain talent — but avoid displacement and economic hardship.

“They’re just misguided,” Torres said about people labeling the issue a brain drain. “I hope it [development] plays out in such a way that the people don’t get hurt, the community doesn’t get hurt and lose really good people and things like that because of economics.”

Carter advocates for community ownership too, but she said strictly advocating for affordable housing is not going to cut it. She said academia, media, the government and philanthropy dictate one way to “be noble,” and that if you don’t adhere to their strategy you’re deemed inauthentic.

“We can all be right,” Carter said. “I’m not saying they’re wrong. And I think that lots of folks can try a lot of different strategies — this is the one that we’ve chosen.”

Posted in Bronx Neighborhoods, Featured, Front Page, south bronx, Southern Bronx3 Comments