Exploding Stoves and Demolished Walls
Tenant Harassment on the Lower East Side
By Steven Wishnia

If you're wondering what might be in store for tenants under vacancy decontrol, you might want to take a look at 16 Clinton St.

Last month, the Lower East Side building's owners knocked down the bathroom walls of three apartments. When tenants asked when the walls would be fixed, landlord Sam Lai told them "Not for a very long time."

The tenants in the building's eight railroad flats all pay less than $500 a month. Vacant one-bedroom apartments in the area are typically renovated and rented for $1,195 and up.

Landlords Sam and Laura Lai-doing business as Shun Lin Inc.-acquired the building in 1994. They wanted to have all the tenants leave while they gut-renovated the building, according to tenant leader Joan Moossy. At one point, she says, Sam Lai screamed "Your rents are going to more than double" at her.

In July 1996, the Buildings Department fined Shun Lin $800 for failing to maintain the exterior walls-a C violation, the third worst of the department's four levels. On Dec. 2, 1996, Laura Lai sent occupants a letter warning them that the back wall was about to collapse and urging them to "vacate the building immediately." "The tenants were panic-stricken," says Moossy.

Two days later, Buildings Department inspectors found the outside walls hadn't been fixed, and Shun Lin was fined another $2,000. The inspectors found some cracks in the wall, says department spokesperson Ted Birkhahn, but the building "did not need to be vacated" and was "in no way in danger of collapse."

Tenants filed suit against the landlord and won a stipulation that all violations be corrected by April 14. When they weren't, they filed a contempt motion.

On April 16, the landlord replaced the stove in an apartment occupied by a 92-year-old man. When his caretaker turned it on the next day, "it exploded, throwing her across the room and burning her face and forearms," according to Moossy.

On May 1, Sam Lai and two workers showed up unannounced at three apartments and demolished the bathroom walls. In one, only a 13-year-old girl was at home; they shoved her out of the way to gain access. In another, Alal Ahmed came home from work to find his bathroom walls gone and the water turned off. In the third, Sophie Sulaiman, an Indonesian immigrant eight and a half months pregnant, was told that her walls would not be fixed "for a long time." The landlords told tenants that they could expect to live without bathrooms for at least a month, and suggested that they use the toilet in the building's storefront, says Moossy.

"The entire renovation was done without a permit," says Birkhahn. The Buildings Department cited Shun Lin for a B violation. It has since given them a permit to fix the back wall, but they haven't picked it up yet, he says. The bathroom walls were rebuilt after Housing Court Judge Jerald R. Klein ordered them repaired on May 14.

A Shun Lin employee told Tenant that "what the tenants say is not true." However, neither Sam nor Laura Lai was available for comment.

"They seem to think this building is their ticket to ride," says Moossy. "They knew what the rents were when they bought it. Maybe they made a bad business deal, but they don't have the right to take it out of our flesh."

Another question is the role of Asian Americans for Equality, a local nonprofit organization which hired the engineer who claimed the building was about to collapse last December. Tenants charge that they collaborated with the landlord in trying to intimidate tenants out. AAFE denies that, saying that they only "offered our services in the event an evacuation was warranted."

"AAFE is saddened that the situation has reached an impasse," deputy executive director Julio Colón said in a statement on May 28. "It is our sincere hope that the landlords and tenants can work toward the common goal of bringing about safe, decent, and affordable housing at 16 Clinton St."

Moossy says the Buildings Department told her the building could be repaired without forcing the tenants to leave. "We have affordable housing," she tells Tenant. "Just fix the structural problems."