Dozens of tenants at the Mesa Verde apartment complex in Jackson Heights rallied earlier in November to demand that building landlord A&E Real Estate make immediate repairs at the property after several elderly residents suffered serious injuries climbing stairs during an ongoing elevator outage that has lasted eight months.
The protest, which took place on Nov. 8 outside the six-story Mesa Verde complex — which consists of six interconnected rent-stabilized buildings on 90th and 91st Street — also heard that one resident required surgery after her bathroom ceiling caved in on top of her.
Around 75 tenants in the complex have sued the landlord over the ongoing issues in a bid to force repairs at the complex. They are also seeking compensation for the alleged harms they have suffered as a result.
Residents accused A&E of ignoring a litany of complaints over vermin, insect and mold infestations throughout the building, adding that they have consistently pleaded with the management company to repair one of the two elevators in the building, which have both been broken down since March.
The six-building complex is served by two elevators, with residents required to take an elevator to the roof and cross a bridge to their building to reach the higher floors in buildings without an elevator. A QNS tour of the building revealed several loose, cracked or uneven steps in the complex, while several stairwells were missing wooden handrails for people to hold onto.
Meanwhile, residents said the elevator outage has forced elderly tenants to walk up to six flights of stairs, forcing seniors to navigate hazardous conditions.
A&E has pushed back strongly against the claims, stating that it has worked diligently to address issues at Mesa Verde since taking over the complex in 2016. The company said it has invested $13 million to address issues at the property and said one of the building’s two elevators would be “back online” by Monday.
But residents say they have received no communication on the issue, adding that they have not seen any crews repairing either of the elevators.
Elevator outage has created dangerous conditions
Celina Della Croce, one of the leaders of a newly-formed tenant union within the building, said the presence of a number of cracked tiles in the building’s stairway makes the climb and descent dangerous for elderly residents.
She said an 80-year-old woman fell and fractured her arm while climbing the stairs, while another elderly woman suffered permanent ankle damage after falling down the stairs.
She added that she would be “thrilled” if A&E repairs one of the elevators but questioned why it has taken the company eight months to address the issue.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Della Croce said.
A&E said the second elevator in the complex had not been replaced in decades and needs extensive rehabilitation at a cost of around $400,000. The company said the rent-stabilized complex does not generate enough income to fund that repair and said management is looking at other options to finance the repairs.
A&E said it has secured an engineer to work on the $400,000 rehabilitation but said the project will be “months long.”
However, tenants said several other issues in the building still persist, even if A&E does repair one or both elevators.
Della Croce said another elderly woman tripped and broke her hip due to a tripping hazard near her doorway, which Della Croce accused A&E of failing to address.
She also told of how a woman required surgery when her bathroom ceiling caved in on her after she had pulled a pull chain to turn on the light.
Residents at the November protest, meanwhile, spoke of persistent roach and rodent infestations throughout the building and accused A&E of failing to properly respond to complaints from tenants.
They said several residents have suffered mold-related illnesses, which they said was widespread throughout the apartment complex.
A&E said it has replaced the roof and windows at the Mesa Verde complex as well as enclosing previously exposed stairwells in order to reduce the risk of leaks and mold. It also said it has hired an exterminator to visit the complex twice a month to deal with any rodent or cockroach infestations and encouraged residents to sign up for in-unit treatments.
Della Croce, however, said the exterminator was sub-par and added that she frequently had to ask on-site exterminators to deal with a roach infestation in her unit. However, she said the issue remains unresolved and said her parents found a dead roach in a wine glass when they visited her apartment for dinner last weekend.
“We’re not going to take it anymore,” Della Croce said. “These are homes and we deserve to live in dignity.”
A&E touts improvements since 2016 takeover
A&E, however, said the property was “night and day” since it took over a decade ago but said some problems persist due to the building’s age.
“Since taking over the property in 2016, we’ve invested more than $13 million to renovate and improve La Mesa Verde,” a company spokesperson said. “We’ve replaced every roof, door and window; corrected more than a thousand violations; replaced the whole gas system; added lighting and security cameras; and replaced concrete with new landscaped courtyards.
“It’s night and day compared to what it was a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean we still don’t face challenges with some of its older systems. We’re working hard to continue improving the property but for some of these underlying issues, there are no quick fixes.”
There are currently over 1,400 open violations at the complex, according to city data.
‘The rats were huge’
However, several tenants alleged that conditions have not improved since A&E took over the building, including Diana Gaviria, a mother-of-two who says she was forced to move out of her apartment after the property management company allegedly failed to address a number of issues inside the unit.
She said she repeatedly asked A&E to remove lead paint from the apartment and fix a cracked pipe, which she said has resulted in black mold and a rodent infestation within the unit. Gaviria broke down in tears as she recalled how she was forced to move in with her in-laws over a year ago because the conditions at Mesa Verde had made her two young children sick.
“The rats were huge,” Gaviria said. “They pooped and peed on my baby’s clothes.”
Gaviria accused A&E of “playing” with her, alleging that the company merely painted over the black mold. She further alleged that A&E refused to acknowledge that there was lead in the apartment.
“They knew what I was going through and they didn’t care,” she added.
Gaviria said she broke her leg while taking items from her Mesa Verde apartment to her in-laws home.
Elena Martinez, a woman in her 70s who lives on the sixth-floor of one of the Mesa Verde buildings, said the elevator outage has left a number of elderly residents feeling “trapped” in their apartments because they are too nervous to attempt using the stairs.
She said a number of people have left the complex because things have “gotten so bad” but said she has called Mesa Verde home for over 35 years and cannot afford to seek accommodation elsewhere.
“Even if I wanted to move somewhere, where am I going to be able to go?” Martinez said.
Martinez says she often feels a pain in her shoulders after carrying her groceries or her laundry up six flights of stairs. She added that she has consistently asked A&E to make repairs in her apartment but said none have been forthcoming, leading her son to make renovations to the unit’s bathroom and kitchen.
However, she said she has repeatedly asked A&E to address her apartment walls and doors, which she said have been damaged by humidity in the unit.
Javier Hernandez, another resident in the building, accused the property management company of failing to impose proper security measures, stating that several homeless individuals have been able to break into the complex and squat in units that have been vacated by frustrated tenants.
Della Croce similarly stated that young people living in the neighborhood easily enter the property and loiter at the top of an elevator shaft on the roof, stating that it is too easy for people to simply walk into the complex from the street.
Hernandez, meanwhile, said he has repeatedly asked A&E to fix loose kitchen tiles in his apartment but alleged that the building’s super informed him that the situation would have to deteriorate even further before the company would intervene.
Legal measures
Residents at Mesa Verde have now filed two lawsuits against A&E, calling for A&E to make repairs at the building and accusing the company of harassing tenants.
Christos Bell, a staff attorney at Communities Resist who is representing the Mesa Verde tenants, alleged that A&E has harassed tenants by repeatedly failing to make repairs in a timely manner, which he said meets the legal definition of landlord harassment.
He said the two suits aim to force A&E to make repairs that tenants have long been calling for as well as providing some form of compensation for the alleged harms that residents have endured as a result.
Della Croce said she believes tenants at Mesa Verde are entitled to compensation after an eight-month elevator outage, among other issues.
“I think it would be beyond fair to ask for some kind of compensation,” Della Croce said. ” I think we are owed some sort of gesture for all of the difficulty that they’ve made us go through.”
The case is due back in Queens Housing Court on Dec. 3.
