Filthy, soapy water dripped down the stairs, from roof to lobby, at 709 W. 170th St. in Washington Heights in what looked like a rainstorm on Saturday, Sept. 21, as tenants and elected officials scrubbed and mopped the floors, walls, and windows. Even a local superintendent lent a hand and his power washer.
With the help of the Metropolitan Council on Housing — a tenant’s rights membership organization — the fed-up residents of 709 and 705 W. 170th St., adjacent buildings in Washington Heights, held their third press conference and what they called “the people’s cleanup.”
Due to what they called the overwhelming and illegal negligence of their landlord — Daniel Ohebshalom who also goes by the alias, Jonathan Santana — the residents of both buildings have been conducting cleanups and performing routine maintenance, including repairing a broken boiler during frigid NYC winters. They have also used their own funds to install security cameras in the building. According to the residents, trespassers had been squatting in the hallways and empty apartments due to a broken lock on the lobby door.
“Rats jump out at you,” said one tenant during Saturday’s presser.
Ohebshalom, who also owns buildings in Midtown, the Upper West Side, and Queens, has been listed as the worst landlord in NYC by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for two years in a row. Ohebshalom, who operates under an alias and several LLCs, such as Belmont Ventures and Highpoint Associates XII, was arrested and charged with eight counts of harassment of a rent-regulated tenant in the first degree, 29 counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to serve 60 days at Rikers Island jail.
“He’s been arrested twice and that’s historic in itself because they don’t arrest [landlords],” City Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa told amNewYork Metro, who also mentioned that the building’s superintendent quit after hearing of Ohebshalom’s arrest, leaving the residents to take matters into their own hands. “And now we’re hearing that [Ohebshalom] is trying to negotiate getting out of paying the taxes that are owed on these properties.”
Ohebshalom owes millions of dollars in fines and according to Anna Baker-Heans, a tenant organizer at Met Council, there are more than 600 open violations on the two buildings on W. 170th Street, “over 100 of them are immediately hazardous,” she said.
According to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, such conditions include inadequate hot water supply, failure to supply the required indoor temperature; defective building parts, plumbing fixtures, walls, and flooring fixtures; high rodent, pest, or mold infestations; and broken and/or defective sinks, faucets, refrigerators, ovens, and stovetops, all of which are present at 709 and 705 W. 170th St.
Olga Camil, a tenant of 709 W. 170th St., took amNewYork Metro on a tour of her apartment, exposing mold and breaking walls. Next door to her place was an apartment in disrepair with literal rubble on the floor and broken ceilings which, according to tenants, has been untouched since 2007.
“That’s not up to code, that’s not up to code,” said a local superintendent and friend of the tenants, as he pointed out violations throughout Camil’s apartment. He asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“There’s a lot of bad landlords out there and a lot of tenants live in this condition, and we’re trying to use this to highlight that,” Williams told amNewYork Metro while holding his daughter in his arms. “Also, we’re starting to work with this organization called, Whose Your Landlord?”
Ofo Ezeugwu founded Whose Your Landlord in 2015 while attending Temple University in Philadelphia. He noticed students not only having difficulty finding housing but also facing negligent landlords whenever they did find a place to live.
“I wanted to create a platform that created and promoted more transparency and then eventually, hopefully, trust between residents and housing providers,” said Ezeugwu.
Tenants can go to the website WYL.co and report housing conditions, which will contribute to the “resident trust index” and inform other possible tenants and lenders alike about how owners treat their buildings and their residents.
State Senator Robert Jackson helped the tenants of both apartments create a tenant’s association in 2021 and has been a trusted friend of the neighborhood for years. On Saturday, he literally rolled up his sleeves and got his hands dirty while sponging down windows. When asked why it was important to help clean on Saturday, Jackson replied, “It’s their willingness to fight for what they want.”
The residents of 705 and 709 W. 170th St. hope to pass TOPA and/or COPA, a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase and a Community Opportunity to Purchase, respectively, which requires the owner to sell the buildings.
“We need Ohebshalom out,” Camil emphatically proclaimed at the presser as she gestured with a swift point of the finger shouting, “Pa fuera! (out!)”
A message was left on the voicemail of Ohebshalom’s attorney and amNY Metro is awaiting response.
This article was updated on Sept. 22 at 1:07 p.m.
