Tenant who shut down meet had 335 reasons
BY NICOLE BODEDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The feisty Brooklyn woman who stopped Monday's Rent Guidelines Board meeting by yelling she has no hot water in her apartment wasn't telling the half of it: Her building has 335 outstanding housing violations.
During a visit yesterday to 546 Bainbridge St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Daily News found that apartment dweller Cathy Allen, 58, isn't the only unhappy tenant.
The landlord, Abraham Sofer, has been cited for violations including a lack of hot water, and rampant rats and roaches. Yesterday, The News also saw a foot of backed-up sewer water stagnating in the basement.
The city's Housing Preservation and Development Department has already done $31,000 in emergency repairs to the three-story building and may have to step in again, agency spokesman Neill Coleman said.
Tenant Cesar MacDonald, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, said he uses his own cash to buy disinfectant and trash bags.
"The situation is very bad," said MacDonald, who said he has had to boil pots of water to bathe his four young daughters since the hot water conked out last week.
Sofer did not return repeated calls for comment. Superintendent Joe Schwartz, reached on his cell phone, said he visits the building regularly and defended conditions there.
"I fix everything in the building," said Schwartz. "This landlord is a very good landlord."
But Allen said she and her sister - who was paralyzed by a stroke - feel like they are under a steady attack so the landlord can rent out her $750-a-month apartment for a market rate rent.
"They're trying to put out a simple woman who didn't hurt anybody," Allen said. "They thought I'd get fragile and just move. But I don't live in fear." Originally published on May 10, 2006