LES Tenants & Gardeners Rally Against
Eviction by Developer
By Susan Howard

On Oct. 20, a coalition of housing advocates, garden activists and political officials rallied in front of 181 East Houston St. on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Tenants were evicted from the building in September, after luxury-housing developer Serge Hoyda signed a contract to buy it from the city.

Hoyda, president of S&H Equities in the affluent suburb of Great Neck, is also responsible for demolishing the Children’s Magical Garden at Norfolk & Stanton streets, after he signed a contract to purchase a private parcel of land within the garden.

Seven families were thrown out of their homes at 181 East Houston St. on the rainy evening of Sept. 26. The Department of Buildings issued them a vacate order, declaring the building "structurally unsound," immediately after Hoyda signed a contract to purchase it from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Without prior notice, tenants were given one hour to take whatever belongings they could and leave the building. They were taken to the Empire Hotel, a single-room-occupancy hotel on the Bowery, and told that they would be relocated until the building could be repaired.

The building was taken over by the city in rem in 1988, seized because the landlord failed to pay taxes. But the city provided little or no repair, and did not find the building uninhabitable until Hoyda signed a contract to purchase it.

Hoyda is now obligated to pay for the tenants’ relocation costs (and any housing costs above their normal rent), and move them back in once renovations are complete, at the same rent they were paying. But he is also quick to add that he will buy them out permanently if they don’t want to wait, and cannot predict how long it will take to make the needed repairs. He bought the building one day after the tenants were evicted.

The Giuliani administration has aggressively sought to sell city-owned property to private developers, and buildings are much more profitable when delivered vacant. Hoyda, according to the New York Post, donated $4,000 to Giuliani’s Senate campaign last year.

Hoyda also holds a contract to purchase and destroy the Children’s Magical Garden, where he plans to develop luxury housing. The garden is made up of three parcels of land, two city-owned and one privately owned, by 88 Holding Company. Dennis Yeung, president of 88 Holding Company purchased the property in 1984 for $7,500.

The Children’s Garden was created in 1985 by Carmen Rubio and Alfredo Feliciano and their neighbors, with the owners’ permission. But after Hoyda signed the contract to purchase it, he had a crew come in (without prior notice to children or parents) and erect a fence, knock down the casita (little house) where the children kept their toys and art supplies, and chop down the 35-foot pine/Christmas tree.

Supporters of the garden have asked Greening Groups Trust for Public Land and New York Restoration Project to intervene and help purchase the private parcel, but Hoyda wants $300,000 to walk away. Community Board 3 has recommended that the city-owned parts be converted to a park.

Speakers at the rally included Hagen Marroni from State Senator Martin Connor’s office, City Councilmember Kathryn Freed, and Margaret Hughes, executive director of Good Old Lower East Side Tenants Union. Councilmember Freed, Senator Connor and GOLES have also been trying to work out a resolution for the tenants of 181 E. Houston St. and the Children’s Magical Garden.

The rally ended with a march past the garden to the Lillian Wald Houses on Avenue D, where at least 300 public-housing residents are scheduled to be relocated while their apartments are renovated. Tenants and advocates, including Rep. Nydia Velazquez, are asking that residents be trained and employed in the renovations as part of the federally funded construction contract.

Action Alert

Please join us in demanding that Serge Hoyda return 181 East Houston St. and the Children’s Magical Garden to the tenants and children of the Lower East Side. Call him at (516) 487-4090; fax, (516) 487-5153; or write to him at: S & H Equities, Inc., 98 Cutter Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11021 (office) or 83 Nassau Rd., Great Neck, NY 11021 (home).