Saturday, February 20, 2010

Landlord throws 92-year old tenant's possessions in the street


From NBC News:

She survived the Holocaust. But a tenacious life story wasn't enough for 92-year old Eta Eckstein to keep her Brooklyn landlord at bay.

While out of her apartment in a rehab facility, the grandmother got evicted.

"It's unspeakable," says Eta's grandson, Idan. "They just threw her belongings onto the street." Eta's family got no explanation from the landlord.

They believe he wants her out of the $600-a-month rent-controlled apartment on Bay Parkway in Bay Ridge, where she's lived for 40 years.

"Family heirlooms, photographs, my dad's birth certificate, diplomas. It's all gone. Everything," Eckstein told NBCNewYork.com.


From 1010WINS:

Her grandson says Eckstein had continue to pay $600-a-month throughout her stay at the rehab facility and tried to return to the apartment on Bay Parkway last spring but found it in disrepair.

Eckstein's family says the ceiling in her bathroom had collapsed.

"This is her home, she's lived there for 40 years," says her grandson. "She should have to right to return and not have this guy take advantage of a situation by creating an unsafe space and then kicking her out."

The family says landlord Morris Piller, once dubbed "King of the Slumlords," was telling people that Eckstein had died. In court papers, Piller apparently claimed that Eckstein was renting out the apartment to others, which the family says is not true.


This is what we've become.

Ain't pretty is it?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am looking for a Pratt study on this.

Columbia? Ah come on, NYU?

Lino said...

"This is what we've become.
Ain't pretty is it? "

Nope. And there are people, some posting here who would take the landlord's side. Even the Housing Courts, once the tenant's protectors of last resort have been slowly packed with landlord sympathizers and property owners.

Giuliani started appointing these stealth judges as the older ones retired..big surprise right?

Over the years I have helped relatives and two friends battle landlords and it used to be that a lone tenant could get a fair hearing and judgment. Now thanks to years of republicans and their actions, you need a high priced and -aggressive- lawyer.


These bastards are killing our city for the working class.

Babs said...

Horrific - harrassment charges should be filed against the Landlord and an Order of Protection granted to this elderly woman.

Lino - don't put lawyers on a pedestal, what they do is not neurosurgery and many are criminals. The BEST ones really would help this woman for FREE.

There should be more coverage of this in the media. I'd like to hear what ex-Mayor Koch has to say - he himself was living in a rent-controlled apartment for YEARS. Doesn't he still? And doesn't Rangel?

Anonymous said...

Sad story.

I don't understand why a holocaust (hoaxocaust) survivor is in the must the paper MUST mention that they are a holocaust survivor.

Babs said...

you're sicko Klink/Joe/etc. etc. - AND a perverted one also I'll bet. You're jerking off thinking how people must be getting all offended by your stupid remarks.

posting from prison perhaps?

Anonymous said...

horrible. guiliani Ball Cancer 2010

John from Conn said...


When will the guys from the American Pickers Program be showing up?

ceiling on my head lady said...

The powers that be want all of us to take gas and die. When I write about the ceiling dropped on me, people dismiss it as a fluke. This is genocide against the poor and working class of New York. May a large civil suit make its way to court and may I be on the jury that decides the damages.

Queens Crapper said...

Wow, Ceiling Lady, where have you been?

ceiling on my head lady said...

Well, you've been following this of course, but New York at large is in cloud-cuckoo land on this, as long as it's not their apartment. In the meantime, this counts as grand larceny and the man should be required to produce the stolen possessions or be jailed until they are found.

Even when a landlord has legal possession, he cannot just toss belongings into the street, they have to go into storage.

Anonymous said...

Both Piller and his 92-year-old tenant are Jewish. If he cares this little for a fellow member of the tribe, imagine how he treats his younger, healthier, gentile tenants.

Anonymous said...

this landlord probably will
be fined by the courts,and restore the Eckstein dwelling.

just who were the Brooklyn Republicans in the local machine who were responsible for this sad event ?

i believe only democrats have been elected in Brooklyn for the past 40 years.

i will predict that both persons involved voted democrat during their stay in Brooklyn.

ceiling on my head lady said...

This is actually a criminal case and should be treated as such. To "throw out" her belongings the landlord had to illegally enter her premises. Furthermore, who knows how many little pins and how much money stuck to his hands in the process.

My brother knows someone whose mother was murdered by a hitman so the landlord could clear her family out of their apartment. Jail this creep.

Anonymous said...

That landlord deserves Auschwitz!