Tenants 2, JTS 0
By Vajra Kilgour

Tenants at two buildings on West 122nd Street, threatened with eviction by the Jewish Theological Seminary, recently won an important victory in their struggle to keep their homes.

In May, the Appellate Term unanimously upheld Housing Court Judge Laurie Lau’s decision that the seminary could not evict the majority of the tenants because at the time they moved into their homes, the buildings were owned by a for-profit shell corporation, negating the seminary’s claim that as a not-for-profit educational institution it was entitled to refuse to renew the tenants’ leases (Tenant/Inquilino, February 1999).

The decision capped a week during which the tenants and the seminary were in conflict over First Amendment rights. On May 16, police threatened to arrest tenants who were trying to hand out leaflets at a dedication ceremony for the seminary’s recently restored tower--which contains no housing--if they did not confine their activities to the other side of the street or to a police pen set up about 130 feet away from the seminary’s entrance.

When the police proved completely intransigent, the tenants decided to go home and get their banners, which they then held in full view of the ceremonies across the street. On May 19, thanks to the quick and effective work of New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chris Dunn, the tenants handed out leaflets in front of the seminary to people attending graduation ceremonies, without incident. The next day, they learned of the Appellate Term’s decision.

A key component of the case was that the seminary failed to meet one legal requirement--that it actually owned the buildings when the tenants moved in. Pooling their money to hire lawyers Catharine Grad and David Weinraub, the tenants were able to amass overwhelming evidence that at the time most of them had moved in, the seminary did not in fact own the buildings.

The tenants’ victory comes after a long struggle. They began fighting a Major Capital Improvement rent increase in the summer of 1993. In late 1995, the seminary announced that it would not renew the leases of tenants who moved into the buildings after July 1, 1978--the cutoff date in the rent-stabilization law for the right to a renewal lease in buildings owned by not-for-profits. And it’s instructive with regard to the importance of organizing to most battles that tenants in New York City face.

The organization that had grown up around the MCI was probably key to the tenants’ ability to fight the threat of the complete loss of their homes. The relatively small size of the buildings--which have a total of 65 apartments--and the presence of some extended families and groups of friends and compatriots (many of the tenants are immigrants from Haiti or Africa) had always contributed to a strong sense of community, but the level of organization required to fight the evictions successfully would probably not have existed if the organizing had not begun before the seminary stopped renewing leases. Tenants who were not under direct threat rallied to the cause; those who were under direct threat knew that they did not have to fight alone.

In some ways, however, the victory is bittersweet. Tenants who moved into the buildings after 1983, when they were transferred back to the seminary’s direct ownership, have had to find new homes elsewhere. Although some were able to negotiate settlements that were advantageous, others have not fared so well. In particular, a tenant who broke ranks and hired a different lawyer early in the litigation process had to move out without any compensation at all, because he lacked the resources to provide sufficient evidence to make the case for separate ownership.

As Tenant/Inquilino goes to press, the seminary has not yet moved to appeal the Appellate Term’s decision, and the tenants see no reason why they should. "This decision feels right," says Alix Delinois, 21, who grew up in 515 West 122nd St. and still lives there with his parents. "It’s immoral for a religious institution to try to get rid of people for no good reason. This decision feels just--it’s righteous."