Mold & maggots
Bronx tenants sue after suffering for 1 yr.
nearly a year without gas, maggots in the ceiling and mold-induced asthma attacks, 22 tenants of a Bronx building have sued their lousy landlord.
The conditions at 643 Southern Blvd. in Longwood are dreadful.
Modesta Gonzalez, 41, showed the Daily News a hole larger than a basketball in the wall of a bedroom where she sleeps with two of her four kids. She worried rats might scurry into the room.
When falling asleep, the family looks up at swollen ceilings that are moist from water.
The apartment, which rents for $958 per month, has lead paint, the bathroom is moldy and the toilet doesn't flush. Her youngest child is a 4-year-old girl.
"This is very dangerous," she said in Spanish. “It's very difficult.”
The gas was cut to the building on Oct. 30, 2017, creating an extra expense for tenants who can barely afford it.
Gonzalez uses an electric stove and griddle to cook, but that raises her electric bill. She spends $500 a week to feed her kids.
"I buy food and it's a lot of money for me because I have four kids,” she said.
The Legal Aid Society filed a suit over conditions in the 44-unit, six-story building in Bronx Housing Court on Thursday.
According to the lawsuit, the landlord, Sam David, agreed in July to give tenants a 30% rent credit so long as gas was not restored. He also agreed to correct 141 outAfter standing violations of the housing code.
But David hasn't followed through on his end of the deal, the tenants say. Even worse, Con Edison posted a notice in the building that electricity will be cut to the building on Oct. 16 because the landlord owes $12,466.
“(The landlord) is very aggressive about collecting rent but not in the least proactive about doing any work in the building," Legal Aid attorney Benjamin Seibel said. “People have families. They have young kids, there's elderly people with special diets. It's a tremendous hardship.”
Blanca Cruz, 40, said her husband put tape on the ceiling of their moldy fourthfloor apartment to keep maggots from crawling in.
She estimated she spends $50 per day to feed her 7year-old son and husband. Tenants in the building often have to get takeout, which costs more than cooking at home.
“We feel bad. We can't even cook,” Cruz said. “One has to work double to buy food so we could eat. It's not fair because the owner comes and demands we pay rent. He doesn't care about fixing things.”
Both her and her son recently started experiencing asthma attacks.
“It's because of the conditions here,” she said.
“Yesterday, he had a really bad cough,” she added, looking at her son.
She pays $1,000 per month to live in the toxic apartment.
The suit seeks the appointment of an administrator who will use rent money to address the sorry state of the building.
A call to an attorney for the landlord was not returned.