‘Gassed Tenants’ Fight Back,
Join Met Council
By Dave Powell

In the early morning hours of Jan. 28, an Emergency Medical Services crew responded to a call of a tenant having a seizure at 159 West 80th St. in Manhattan. At first, the call seemed routine.

But before EMS could leave the building, they received another call from the dispatcher: Two other tenants were having seizures on a different floor. By midday, firefighters and EMS workers had evacuated three buildings, and over 20 tenants had been hospitalized. Five tenants narrowly escaped death, requiring both CPR and further treatment in an oxygen chamber at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

The culprit was an illegally rigged boiler, shared by the two buildings at 159 and 161 W. 80th St., that had leaked carbon monoxide gas into the apartments above. At 159, carbon-monoxide levels were found to be as high as 400 parts per million; the Fire Department evacuates a building at 35 parts per million.

Most tenants returned to their homes later that evening, but their nightmare was far from over. The "on again, off again" heat they had tolerated for years was now completely shut off. Citing additional safety concerns, Con Edison cut off their gas service. But to many tenants, even more intolerable was that no authority stepped forward to deal with their biggest problem, landlord Pablo Llorente.

Llorente’s rap sheet reads like a how-to manual for a landlord from hell. In 1997, Con Ed sued him for over $108,000 in unpaid bills. He made the Village Voice’s "Ten Worst Landlords" list in 1998. He has spent time in jail for assaulting a contractor, shoved at least one inspector from the Department of Buildings, and is currently facing civil and criminal charges for his treatment of tenants at 311 West 95th St. DOB spokesman Paul Wein, in a statement that seems to echo the sentiments of many city agencies, described Llorente as "one of our most egregious offenders."

But to the tenants of 159 and 161 West 80th St., Llorente’s record is just a public confirmation of what they’ve lived with for years. Many complain of serious violations, from vermin, leaks, and peeling lead paint to defective windows, broken intercoms, and broken appliances. Longtime tenants speak of incidents of assault and abuse, and recall neighbors who finally left out of frustration and fear. And many complain that Llorente remains defiant since the incident, alternately laughing at and verbally abusing tenants--some of whom are still dealing with health problems as a result of the carbon-monoxide poisoning (at least one elderly tenant remains in the hospital as of press time).

Tenants Fight Back

For many years, tenants at both buildings endured substandard conditions in relative isolation. But the near-fatal gas leak appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Several days after the incident, tenants contacted and joined Met Council. They have since dubbed themselves "The Gassed Tenants Association of 159/161 W. 80 St."

The tenants have sued the landlord in an HP (Housing Part) action for repairs, and were due back in court on March 8. They hope get an order for repairs, and will also request the intervention of the city housing agency’s Emergency Repair Program if the most serious violations are not cured within 24 hours. They have also launched a building-wide rent strike, and have hired lawyer David Weinraub (law partner of Met Council board member Cathy Grad). Several tenants have filed personal-injury suits against Llorente.

Though tenants may be making progress in getting services restored, the landlord whose neglect nearly cost them their lives remains in control of their buildings. Although Llorente faces prosecution from the city’s corporation counsel for building-code violations at 311 West 95th St., the Department of Buildings has not issued summonses severe enough to trigger such action for the 80th Street buildings. The Fire Department also has this power, but has not yet acted upon it either.

The Department of Buildings may have known about the boiler’s condition prior to the Jan. 28 poisoning incident. Records obtained from the DOB show a "hazardous" boiler violation was issued for 159 West 80th St. on Jan. 9. The violation description charges "defective wiring of installed spill switch; defective electric motor on gas burner drops down on speed and is making a grinding sound; defective clean-out door on chimney base." A second violation appears for Jan. 28, the same in every detail except for the date and violation number. DOB personnel have claimed that the initial violation is a "data entry error" and that no inspection was performed on Jan. 9. On Feb. 27, when questioned by Channel 7 news reporter Nina Pineda on the matter, DOB spokesman Paul Wein said simply "the boiler violation is being investigated."

Tenants plan to ask the Manhattan district attorney’s office to prosecute Llorente on criminal charges.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

The conditions suffered by Llorente’s tenants underscore all that is wrong with the city’s code-enforcement infrastructure. Though the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has sustained many of the tenants’ numerous complaints over the years, its chronically underfunded litigation and enforcement bureau allows landlords like Llorente to "do the crime and not pay the fine."

Besides giving tenants no relief from the myriad problems they’ve complained about, HPD’s ineffectiveness erodes tenant confidence in the agency. When the heat in the 80th Street buildings faltered just prior to the gas leak, tenants there did not even bother calling the heat-complaint hotline. And with the number of inspectors drastically cut since the ‘80s, HPD no longer conducts unsolicited "roof to cellar" inspections, which might have identified the problems with the boiler.

Nearly all the same things can be said about the Department of Buildings. Another crucial flaw with both agencies is that neither has any real process to take buildings away from the most flagrant offenders, or to jail criminal landlords. But clearly tenants like those at West 80th Street are victims of a crime, and deserve immediate relief. Instead both agencies are kept impotent, dispersing minimal fines that they are woefully incapable of collecting.

Both HPD and DOB have enforcement mechanisms that have been destroyed by politics. In contrast, the Fire Department, which can issue violations of the fire code, has never had an enforcement mechanism and needs to be given one. Some people in city agencies have floated the idea that the Fire Department needs to expand its regulation of boilers; it now only regulates those that burn #6-grade heating oil. And though smoke detectors are mandatory in all multiple dwelling units, carbon monoxide detectors, which can be purchased at most hardware stores, are not.

In the meantime, Met Council "rent strike" signs hang in the windows at 159/161 West 80th St.

If you would like more information about organizing your building, contact Met Council organizer Dave Powell at (212) 693-0553, ext. 6.