A tenant, residing at 181 Palmetto Street in Bushwick, is saying her landlord has wrongfully harassed and used scare tactics to get her to move. This comes after a man, claiming to also be a tenant and have permission to be there, illegally kicked in the door to her apartment to gain entry.
In response to the hostile confrontation of the two parties, Assemblywoman Maritza Davila (D-Bushwick, Williamsburg) along with State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick, Cypress Hills, Greenpoint, Williamsburg) and the Communities Resist organization came together to stand against tenant harassment.
Tasha Rose perched on the stoop in front of the building where the press conference was held on Saturday, Aug 9. She was accompanied by a friend, Ginger Ging-Dwan Boyd, who is also battling a housing issue in Flatbush and showed up for support. Both appeared dejected by the ongoing situation, but appreciated Communities Resist members setting up shop on the sidewalk outside to ensure her safety during the week. “As soon as my landlord knew that I was alone and vulnerable in my apartment–He knew that I was quarantined because I have asthma,” said Rose. “Everyone needs to be on the same page as this is not okay.”
She has been living in her apartment for two years as her name is listed on a month-to-month lease contract, according to officials
“This is the moment to stand up and say we will not tolerate this. This is unacceptable, not only in this neighborhood, but anywhere in the state of New York,” said Davila, who has many personal ties to advocating for housing in her district. “The landlord hasn’t received any rent. There is a pandemic. We know there’s a pandemic, everyone knows this is a pandemic. Imagine you’re trying to stay safe and someone comes and kicks your door down.”
Davila spoke passionately of the 1977 Blackout, when slumlords burned the homes of low-income and Black and Brown community members during a rash of rioting and looting when a downed substation plunged the city into darkness.
Davila said that landlords using chaos as a chance to harass tenants is not new to the neighborhood nor will it be allowed to fester during the current crisis. She referenced the rent moratoriums and the recent extension of these disaster laws meant to protect against displacement.
“So many people that came before me have overcome harder adversity with less technology, less resources, and less community. So if they can do it, it’s not guaranteed we can do it too, but it means we shouldn’t give up,” said Boyd.
The working theory is that an “agent of the landlord” hired by Owner Yehuda Kohn of Catherine Realty USA LLC was used to enter the apartment without real notification or documents attributing any tenancy in the building. Though there’s no evidence to support that theory yet, said Sam Chiera, legal support from Communities Resist.
However, the man was given the passcode to the keypad lock of the building’s door and key to the apartment by someone other than Rose or her former roommate, said Chiera, and is clearly seen kicking the door in. The man visited the apartment three times before that, said Chiera.
“I am a tenant. And years ago, we lived in a building that was neglected with an abusive landlord and I wasn’t sure what my rights were,” said Salazar. “This particular situation is outrageous.”
According to the video filmed by Rose from inside her home shown to KCP, Rose was yelling back and forth with an individual described as a Black man with no belongings who called himself “Robert” but who’s real name is reportedly Charles Clemente. A search yielded that Clemente could live in the Bushwick neighborhood nearby, but Rose’s legal representation said there’s no substantive support for that yet.
Rose, who is a white woman and acknowledges the racially sensitive optics of the situation, said repeatedly in the video that she did not know the man and her lawyer has advised her not to open the door, which appears to be barricaded from the inside.
He then yells back through the closed door, “I am a tenant here,” before beginning to physically kick through the apartment door and break it down in what could be described as aggravation and hostility. Rose is heard frantically screaming for help and police before the short video ends.
A timeline of the events shortly after the video ends and the police had arrived was provided by a resident on Rose’s floor to KCP. He prefers to remain anonymous to avoid any retaliation. He said that he and roommates were coming downstairs from the roof, and heard all of the commotion in the hallway. He describes Rose as visibly distressed and yelling with the landlord.
Kohn told KCP that he didn’t want to be involved in the situation. “The old roommate rented it to him, it’s a deal between two roommates,” he said. “Tasha Rose’s previous roommate rented the room to someone else and I’m not involved with anything else.”
Kohn said that he wasn’t aware of a confrontation and doesn’t know the man involved.
The resident said that there are two landlords, one being Yehuda Kohn, and the other from the management company is called Alex. While there is no Yehuda Kohn on the Public Advocate’s worst landlords list from 2019, there is an Alex Kohn. It’s unclear if there is any relation at this time.
The resident said that the landlord present, Alex, came over to explain to them the situation. “From his perspective, he said he had someone in need of a room that needed a place to stay, and that because Tasha’s roommate had just moved out, he decided to fill the opening with ‘Robert’ and had him sign a lease that reflected that. He said that he had texted Tasha earlier in the day to notify her about ‘Robert’ coming,” said the resident.
‘Robert,’ he said he learned from speaking with Rose, had been there earlier in the day with his daughter and encountered her in the apartment. ‘Robert’ claimed he was given permission to break the door down since he was being locked out of an apartment that had a valid lease with his name on it, said the resident.
The man identified as ‘Robert’ was reportedly arrested and then released.
“But I’m pretty sure they have had numerous amount of people in the varying rooms over the course of the lease, from what I’ve been told, so I’m not sure how surprising a situation like this would be in the course of her time living here,” said the resident about the situation.
He added that the two landlords are “ridiculously unorganized” in how they manage things so he wouldn’t be surprised by anything.
