With days before Thanksgiving, Sunset Park lawmakers including State Sen. Zellnor Y. Myrie, Assembly Member Felix Ortiz, and City Council Member Carlos Menchaca today joined tenants in decrying a property management company that they allege have left the tenants without cooking gas for more than two months.
But the management company for the landlord maintains they have only been without cooking gas for one month and it is the city’s bureaucratic red tape that is holding up the needed repairs.
The 17-unit building is at 545 46th Street in Sunset Park, and it is one of three adjacent buildings with 51 units in total that Sharp Management Company manages on the block.
“This is a week where we are supposed to be giving gratitude. But instead of coming out here with gratitude, this morning we are out here with an attitude,” said Myrie. “We are upset. We are angry. While the landlords get to enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner this week, the tenants who pay rent have no cooking gas. How dare you spend time with your family, eat with your family, enjoy time with your family, and leave the families who pay rent in the cold. This is unacceptable and we are calling for action this week. Sharp Management, you are on notice.”
“The audacity of Sharp Management to deny their tenants at 545 46th Street heat and gas while charging some more in rent is beyond reprehensible,” said Menchaca. “It is cruel, inhumane, and completely unacceptable. Their actions capture a citywide trend of landlords thinking they can treat tenants in working-class, immigrant, and minority communities with less respect than other neighborhoods. Not in Sunset Park. And not on my and State Senator Myrie’s watch. We will not stop fighting for the tenants until heat and gas is restored.”
“Gas must be restored to this building,” said Ortiz. “I’ve contacted state housing officials and the city buildings and housing officials responsible for dealing with inexcusable situations like this.“
But Sharp Management Senior Manager Mike Davidowitz maintains that allegations against the company are inaccurate and as a manager of some 4,000 units of property citywide it has a good overall record of capital and non-capital investment of properties it manages.
“What happened is on Oct 21, National Grid said they believed there was a gas leak and we immediately contacted a licensed plumber, who assessed the situation and filed for a work permit,” said Davidowitz, adding that during the interim, a Department of Buildings (DOB) inspector visited the site on Nov. 15 and issues three violations.
“We immediately paid the violations, but we now have to wait between 7-10 days for the violations to post before we can start the work. In the meantime, we purchased all the tenants’ hot plates and gave them vouchers at a local restaurant for Thanksgiving. But truly from my experience, the DOB and HPD [Department of Housing Preservation and Development] don’t help the situation and we can show proof we attempted to make repairs,” he said.
But Myrie showed proof that he and Menchaca’s office sent an email to Sharp offices late Friday afternoon – at 4:25 p.m. – saying, “it has come to our attention that the residents of 545 46th street have been without gas or heat for at least two months. With the weather growing colder every day and the holidays approaching, this is deeply concerning to us. We are demanding a full accounting of the issues in the building and immediate action to remedy the situation.”
Davidowitz responded that the email was sent to the wrong address and that the lawmakers should have checked out some of the allegations before calling a press conference to demonize the company early Monday morning. The first he said he knew of all this was when reporters contacted him following the press conference.
In any event, the lawmakers are hoping to get the gas turned on and needed repairs done as soon as possible.
