COURIER L 4 IFE, MARCH 6-12, 2020
FIRED UP
Ditmas Park residents demand repairs to
fi re damage after a year of displacement
Flatbush Tenant Coalition members protested outside of Kings County Housing Court in
Downtown Brooklyn on Tuesday. Photo by Jessica Parks
BY JESSICA PARKS
More than a year after a massive
inferno engulfed a Ditmas
Park apartment building, the landlord
has made limited progress in
restoring the fire damage — leaving
18 families displaced from their
homes since February of 2019.
“I have gone into the apartment
a few times to see, but nothing has
been done,” said Esperanza Pena,
who joined a protest on Tuesday.
Faulty electrical wiring ignited
the blaze inside the E. 18th Street
building near Albemarle Road on
Feb. 25 of last year, leading the
city’s Department of Buildings to
institute a partial vacate order for
the building.
Since then, the 18 displaced families
have been personally footing
the bill for their relocation costs
— with some staying with family,
and others finding other temporary
housing.
The tenants first took legal action
against the landlords, Juda
Rosenfeld and JBM Estates, for the
fire-related damage in April 2019,
demanding speedy repairs and compensation
for their relocation costs
— as well as for Rosenfeld to be held
in contempt of court for the alleged
slow pace of reconstruction.
The Kings County Housing
Court later issued a Jan. 31 moveback
date, when the building’s managers
were supposed to have completed
the necessary renovations
— but they blew past that deadline,
and the court granted them an extension.
Now, the tenants have taken to
protesting the court’s decision,
which they claim gives undo preference
to landlords, according to an
organizer with the Flatbush Tenant
Coalition.
“We are protesting a housing
court system that works only for
the landlords and not the tenants,”
said Estefania Trujillo Preciado at
Tuesday’s demonstration outside
the courthouse.
The tenants have pointed out that
Rosenfeld has been a notoriously
poor landlord, racking up numerous
different complaints and violations
over the past several years.
In 2016, the E. 18th Street building’s
tenants filed a lawsuit against
Rosenfeld calling on the landlord to
repair the building’s electrical wiring
and mitigate other hazardous
conditions after the Department of
Housing and Preservation deemed
the building “immediately hazardous”
in 2015.
The residents of another Rosenfeld
property, at 1800 Albemarle Rd.,
have filed over 80 complaints, resulting
in over 60 Department of Building
violations, for water damage,
mold, and other porous conditions.
Rosenfeld and JBM Estates could
not be reached for comment.