Opinion: Stand with tenants and put bad landlords out of business

I grew up thinking that taking baths in brown water was normal, that having ceilings cave in on you was okay, and that unlocked front doors to our apartment building, power outages and no heat in the winter was just living in Brooklyn. I grew up in a building owned by the Pinnacle Group, a corporate landlord under the control of billionaire Joel Wiener. It wasn’t until after I graduated from college that I understood how appallingly my family and all my neighbors had been treated throughout my childhood. Organizing against Pinnacle Group’s abject treatment of tenants alongside the Crown Heights Tenant Union inspired me to become an Assembly member and help create a new normal for tenants in New York.

While I grew up, Pinnacle Group grew too. It bought up a total of 146 buildings across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. These buildings are almost all rent-stabilized, like the one I grew up in and where my parents still live today. This means even more children across New York City think it’s normal to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Pinnacle continued to deny tenants basic maintenance to save itself money, to make people’s homes so unlivable that they move out, to exploit loopholes in the rent stabilization law and flip apartments to market rate.

But Pinnacle’s plans didn’t pan out. This spring, Pinnacle’s portfolio was put into foreclosure, and soon after, it filed for bankruptcy. Pinnacle has claimed the 2019 rent laws left it without adequate income to operate, but I know firsthand that the issues in its building go back decades. According to court filings, if not for debt service, the buildings would still be profitable. But no matter the reason, 93 Pinnacle buildings – more than 5,000 rent-stabilized apartments – are now in crisis and are up for auction. Bidding began Nov. 21 and ended Dec. 12. What kind of landlord would want to buy up this rent-stabilized housing that has been neglected for years? Most likely, landlords with the same priorities as Pinnacle – or worse. It should be clear by now that this type of management is unacceptable. Corporations shouldn’t be rewarded for making housing less affordable for New Yorkers and making tenants miserable in the process. The cycle of speculation and neglect has to stop here and now. 

In October, I stood with Pinnacle tenants outside of 1048 Union Street, when common power was shut off inside because Pinnacle didn’t pay its ConEd bills. Last month, I stood with Pinnacle tenants outside the Brooklyn federal courthouse, to let the bankruptcy judge and the city know that to 5,000 New Yorkers, these aren’t just assets, they’re homes. And I’m proud to be the first of more than 20 elected officials to have signed onto the tenants’ letter of support. Pinnacle tenants are organizing to demand a new beginning, not more of the same. 

The Union of Pinnacle Tenants has asked the city to help them slow down this auction, take the buildings off the market and hold the titles, while tenants decide for themselves what ownership models would work best for their needs – whether that means for-profit landlords with stricter regulations, co-ops, community land trusts, public stewardship or something else. They are asking that, finally, their lives be considered as important as potential profits. The city and its Department of Housing Preservation and Development officially sent the court a letter asking for the auction to be delayed – a crucial step in providing tenants and the city the time to create alternative plans. Now, the judge overseeing the auction must heed our joint call.

Today in our city, a little girl will pour herself some cereal for breakfast, see cockroaches fall into her bowl and think that that’s just life. It doesn’t have to be that way. The city can put its capacities and its resources behind working people, put bad landlords out of business, step up and step into the gap. That is the kind of normal we need.