Monday, February 7, 2022

Judge calls NYCHA a criminal landlord...then he vanished



 
 

 

NY Daily News

That was the message from a Queens Housing Court judge outraged by the agency’s failure to provide hot water to as many as 300 tenants in a Rockaway apartment building since November, the Daily News has learned.

“If this was a private small landlord he [the landlord] would be in jail by now,” Judge Kimon Thermos said during a Jan. 20 hearing. “He would have been in jail by now and the fines would have been $500 per day, per apartment. So he would have been in jail and he would have been losing his building too.”

As a city-run agency, the New York City Housing Authority is not eligible for the same penalties as a private landlord who neglects its properties and tenants.

“Why is your crime shielded this way?” Thermos asked a NYCHA lawyer. “NYCHA is dropping the ball big time here.”

Tenants in Carleton Manor say NYCHA did little for months to fix the water problem that makes taking a shower a major undertaking. Dozens of tenants have filed a petition in Housing Court seeking to force NYCHA to make repairs at the 174-unit building on Beach Channel Dr. and Beach 74th St. in Arverne.

“This is the dead of winter,” said Alisha Robinson, 42. “We need this corrected. We need some attention on fixing this.”

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” she said. “I have to go to a hotel to take a decent shower.”

 

The legal fight began Nov. 29, when one tenant, Shaniya Callender, filed a petition to get the water problem fixed. That yielded no progress, so on Dec. 28, 45 tenants signed a petition threatening housing court action if no repairs were made by Jan. 10.

That deadline came and went, so the tenants took NYCHA to court. At the Jan. 20 hearing, Judge Thermos was outraged that NYCHA’s work on the building was being overseen by an unlicensed plumber.

The judge said he was considering issuing a subpoena demanding NYCHA Chairman Gregory Russ appear in court. But before he could, Thermos was replaced on the case by a different judge, for unclear reasons.

 

12 comments:

NPC_translator said...

Not fuh nuthin, but it's pretty fun that the judge in a case about hot water is named Thermos.

Anonymous said...

Judge Crater, call your office.

Anonymous said...

Everything is always someone else's fault, lmfao.
FJB!!!

Anonymous said...

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BILLIONS spent on NYCHA ?
My Life Matters
My Wife's Life Matters
My Kid's Life Matters
My Loved One's Lives Matter
My Neighbor's Lives Matter
All People's Lives Matter

Adriatic Hillbilly said...

Wow you guys are fast - beat me to the Thermos AND the judge Crater gags...

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, Thermos is/was a Republican.

Disgruntled Citizen Matters said...

Not for nothin’ the Kweens Kounty Kourthouse has a rotation schedule for HPD cases. Either every week or two weeks a different housing court judge is assigned to HPD cases. Some HPD cases are emergencies like the slumlord shutting off essential services such as water, heat, electricity or gas. Plus it’s a NYCHA case.
If you don’t believe me call the Kourt House or stop by the 2nd floor clerks office, ask them

Anonymous said...

for unclear reasons, NYC is a banana republic shit hole

Anonymous said...

Houses are for commies !

Anonymous said...

42%, I repeat, 42%, of NYCHA tenants are in arrears! And the median rent is only $389 per month!!!
No wonder why NYCHA cannot make repairs.

Anonymous said...

Kimon is a good guy - be he a Democrat or Republican. He knows his landlord tenant law. And he is spot on in this decision. If it were the little guy the little guy would be fucked. But since it's the city - oh well, let the other little guys and gals rot!

Anonymous said...

I'd rather live in a homeless shelter than some shithole redneck state like Florida or Texas.

Post a Comment