Been Told You Have to
“Live with the Pain?”
NEUROPATHY BREAKTHROUGH!
'/0$1
-!2 , in
/4
, %50 %6$$$ 6
7
Caribbean Life, D 20 ECEMBER 18-24, 2020
NYC Public Advocate,Jumaane D. Williams. Kevin Fagan
Williams unveils 2020
Worst Landlord Watchlist
By Nelson A. King
Public Advocate, Jumaane D. Williams
recently released the annual Worst Landlord
Watchlist, which catalogues the 100
most egregiously negligent landlords in
New York City as determined by widespread,
repeated and unaddressed violations
in buildings on the list.
“This year, the buildings owned by
the worst landlords in the city were overwhelmingly
in the Black and Brown neighborhoods
hardest hit by the COVID-19
pandemic,” said Williams.
He said the 2019 worst individual landlord
remains in the top spot for the second
year in a row – Jason Korn.
Williams said Korn amassed an average
of 1,822 violations across 10 buildings on
the list in 2020.
In addition to the injustices occurring
inside Korn’s buildings is the injustice
of his attempts to force tenants out, Williams
said.
“As the coronavirus continues to devastate
the city and cases are rising, Korn is
currently threatening to evict a group of
Crown Heights tenants who have organized
a rent strike; those tenants citing
widespread neglect and deplorable conditions,”
he said.
The public advocate said the New York
City Housing Authority (NYCHA) also tops
the 2020 Worst Landlord List for the third
year in a row.
“In a moment when New Yorkers are
largely confined to their homes, facing a
deadly pandemic and an economic crisis,
the worst landlords in New York City continue
to take advantage of New Yorkers
in need, neglecting emergency repairs
and allowing dangerous conditions to
go unchecked while continuing to cash
rent checks,” he said. “Again, we see the
COVID-19 pandemic revealing existing
inequities, as the worst landlords operate
in some of the worst-hit neighborhoods in
our city and target lower income communities
of more color.”
The Public Advocate said his Worst
Landlord Watchlist is an informationsharing
tool intended to allow tenants,
public officials, advocates and other concerned
individuals to identify which residential
property owners consistently flout
the City’s laws intended to protect the
rights and safety of tenants. This is the
second list from Public Advocate Williams’
office.
The top 5 worst individual landlords in
New York City in 2020 are:
Jason Korn, with an average of 1,822
Housing Preservation Department (HPD)
open violations; Lewis Barbanel, with an
average of 1,383 HPD open violations;
Robert Raphael, with an average of 1,229
HPD open violations; Abdul Khan, with an
average of 1,195 HPD open violations; and
David Blau, with an average of 952 HPD
open violations.
An analysis of the buildings that comprise
the Worst Landlord Watchlist finds
that the zip codes with the highest-violation
buildings in the city correspond with
communities of more color also hit hard
by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This only reinforces the reality that
racial and income inequity are primary
factors in both the spread of the coronavirus
and the pervasiveness of poor housing
conditions and the landlords perpetuating
them,” Williams said.
At a virtual press conference Tuesday,
Public Advocate Williams decried the
actions of the landlords on the list alongside
local elected officials and a coalition
of tenants facing the deplorable conditions
allowed by the worst landlords in the city.
Williams said individual landlords on
the Worst Landlord Watchlist are ranked
according to objective criteria using the
average number of housing code violations
open per month on their buildings
by HPD, using data from December 2019
to November 2020.
Also listed are the 10 “worst” buildings
for each borough, ranked according to
the number of average open violations per
month, regardless of ownership.
Only Class B and C violations are counted
in the calculation of whether a building
meets the selection criteria, Williams
said.
!"
!
"#
$!
%&'
()(* +
,,-.#
!
$ %&' (
)
&*
Brooklyn, NY —
Breakthrough
for Peripheral
Neuropathy
Sufferers!
, 6+
8
* 2
!2
,- )
"" "
)
"*
.*/**,/,0
1/2&/12,13
,-8
+"
4546&'
7
)!
In this Cutting-edge
FREE Seminar You’ll
Learn:
*
"
! '
* 8 9
' '
7/*
!
8
"
&
' 8&&
"
6
'
" '
&'
"8
&
' 8
7
8
"
"
%6$$$$9$& $66$ $%6 /$
"44$9&$ $: %$64$"6;4
"4$8", ,
<
=)>)(
=8*>!
"4$6$8
$!
'&'
()(* +-./
8 %6$$7&' ! 2 +,
6?8
6?2<
@
!,
A8
,
. 2
9 ,' &!,A$+
&&8 *BCD@E=D>@(F /7
REGISTRATION IS FREE, BUT SEATING IS
LIMITED DUE TO COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS.
'
"