KING OF ‘SLUMLORDS’
With 3,293 violations, he retains title
A Big Apple “slumlord” who earned the infamous title of worst landlord in 2022 has retained that dishonor this year, according to a report released Wednesday by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
Johnathan Santana topped the 2023 Worst Landlord Watchlist after racking up a record 3,293 open violations across 15 Manhattan and Queens buildings, the report said. The violations, which span 306 units, surpassed the 2,980 recorded in his buildings last year.
“They have let these buildings deteriorate into squalor,” John Reeds, a longtime tenant of one of Santana’s dilapidated Midtown properties, told The Post.
No heat for 20 days
Williams announced this year’s worst landlord list outside of 410 W. 46th St., which just weeks ago was placed under the control of an outside administrator after tenants waged a yearslong court battle to remedy unsafe conditions.
Reeds, who had no hesitation in slamming Santana and others linked to the building as “slumlords,” said it has for years been plagued by squatters, flooding and heating outages.
“One of the worst that I remember was for over 20 days we were without heat and hot water in the winter suffering,” Reed said.
A fire sparked by electrical issues seven years ago destroyed parts of the roof, leaving tenants to live under tarps for more than a year and many apartments uninhabitable, he added.
“These apartments are completely devastated. The whole ceilings are in rubble on the floor and when you look up you see the lathing,” Reeds said.
Junkies in halls
Loyda Irizarry, who lives at a West 170th Street Santana building, said she feared that the dwelling could fall “at any moment” given it was in such disrepair.
“It’s the water that’s seeping through to the bottom of the building,” she said. “It’s just gathering there and it destroying the foundation. It could fall at any minute,” Irizarry, 70, said.
“We had drug users, squatters. The drug users were sleeping in the hallways, defecating in the hallways and spreading it all over the walls,” she continued. “The chimney catches fire every year.”
Santana was listed as the designated head officer for the buildings, which are registered under an assortment of LLCs, as well as another notorious owner, Daniel Ohebshalom, the public advocate said.
Registering buildings under corporations and head officers is a common tactic for owners to avoid accountability for the conditions of the dwellings.
Properties previously in Santana’s name were recently reclassified to list Ohebshalom as the officer on record, Williams said.
After Santana, the next four worst landlords on the list were David Tennenbaum (2,416 open violations), Larry Hirchfield (1,394 open violations), Sima Abdavies (1,372 open violations) and Alfred Thompson (1,341 open violations).
The Post’s efforts to reach Santana were unsuccessful.