Fire, then a rent strike
Harlem tenants are demanding repairs they said were needed before fatal Nov. blaze
Tenants displaced by a devastating Harlem fire that killed three of their neighbors said Monday they are withholding rent until their landlord begins repairs that were needed even before the deadly blaze.
More than six months have passed since a fire tore through a 46-unit apartment building along Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. near W. 112th St., killing a mother, her young daughter and an elderly neighbor.
The blaze forced some residents to find other housing or live in shelters until repairs are completed. Tenants who had no choice but to stay have had to live with fire damage in common areas, along with a leaky roof, mold, mouse and roach infestations, and doors that still won’t close on their own, a condition that helped the Nov. 18, 2021, fire spread, residents said.
“The night of the fire, I told our building manager that I had nowhere to go and that I had just moved across the country. He said to talk with the American Red Cross,” said Oaklin Davis, a displaced tenant and secretary of the tenant association.
Davis, who relocated to the city just months before the blaze, used a fire escape to get out of the building. His belongings and apartment were destroyed.
“I stayed one night in a hotel afforded to me by the Red Cross and then two weeks in a shelter with other displaced people until I found a more permanent place to live,” Davis said.
“No one from management ever reached out to me again, except on the first of each month when I find a rent demand letter stuck in the doorframe of my unit that remains uninhabitable. The last note I received from management was a contract to renew my lease with a 1.5% increase in the monthly rate.”
Davis is also one of several tenant plaintiffs in a lawsuit against building owner Manhattanville Holdings LLC claiming the landlord has a long history of failing to comply with fire safety and housing maintenance regulations, including defective fire doors, inoperable or missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and defective or obstructed fire escapes.
“Our rent strike is a direct response to the questionable practices of this current management company, its predecessors, and the owner who continue to compromise tenant health and safety,” said Sheena Morrison, co-president of the tenant association.
“Despite numerous 311 complaints, many of us on the fifth floor have been engaged in an uphill battle to get management to address a longstanding mold issue in our individual apartments because the roof leaks whenever it rains. Just before the fire, it had become so unbearable that we had to move all of our clothing from the closet in the bedroom and begin sleeping in the living room.
Records show that the city Housing Preservation and Development Department has sued the landlord, seeking a court order imposing fines until numerous building code violations imposed after the fire are resolved. The landlord has not filed a response in the case.
Representatives of real estate firm J Wasser, which manages the Harlem building for Manhattanville Holdings, did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Adianatou-Nene Korouma and her daughter Aissata perished in the fire, along with an 81-year-old Vietnam War veteran.
FDNY officials said no working smoke detectors were found in the victims’ apartments or the apartment where the fire started.