By Sarina Trangle
The litmus test for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s affordable housing plan rests in Ridgewood — if you ask one group of tenants.
Residents of six rent-stabilized apartment buildings clustered near the border of Ridgewood and Bushwick, Brooklyn, are attempting to lobby the city into providing some of the financing a nonprofit housing group would need to purchase the buildings currently tied up in foreclosure and bankruptcy cases.
Ed Josephson, an attorney representing the tenants, said the six properties’ trajectory mirrored thousands of rent-regulated apartments across the city that seem to cycle through legal proceedings while tenants worry about their homes’ affordability and no entity seems responsible for upkeep.
“This is an interesting little test case as to how de Blasio’s housing plan works in the real world,” said Josephson, litigation director at Legal Services NYC. “You’ve got 36 units, they’re pretty much typical …. In a pretty similar cast of characters, you have a hedge fund trying to buy them, a managing company managing them.”
The buildings — 16-26, 16-73 and 16-75 Woodbine St.; 18-21 and 18-94 Cornelia St.; and 18-14 Linden St. — fell into foreclosure in 2007. In 2012, the landlord Ridgewood Realty LLC filed for bankruptcy. Stabilis Capital Management acquired the $4.99 million consolidated mortgage on the lots in 2011.
The court appointed a receiver to collect rent and manage the buildings, but Josephson said the buildings went neglected. Later, a managing agent was hired to step in, but complaints about repairs persisted.
The residents seek to remedy the situation by getting the city to help Community Assisted Tenant Controlled Housing, a nonprofit that purchases distressed buildings and turns them into affordable housing, find the money to make Stabilis a competitive offer for the buildings in bankruptcy court this June.
If the sale went through, CATCH would create a governing board modeled after a co-op.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Elise Goldin, lead tenant organizer with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, which helped the Ridgewood residents band together, said the locks on the doors easily malfunction and remain broken, pests are a problem and heat and hot water are inconsistent.
Denise Serrano, who lives at 18-21 Cornelia St., said she has grown used to fixing problems around her home, spotty electricity in the hallway and dangling wires in the basement.
She said some neighbors stopped paying rent because they were tired of seeing maintenance stagnant.
But Serrano said she and her neighbors were told their rent could increase if major work was undertaken.
“I had to move from Williamsburg because the rents became outrageous. I see the neighborhood changing,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything affordable around here.”
Rent for the 36 railroad-style, one-to-two-bedroom units ranges from about $700 to $1,200 a month, according to Josephson.
Stabilis Capital said the managing agent was appointed by and answers to the federal bankruptcy court.
“Stabilis doesn’t actually have any legal control over these properties, and the company is not even permitted by the court to come in and fix anything themselves,” Stabilis spokesman Konstantin Shishkin wrote in an e-mail, adding that the firm had “extensively” financed repair work undertaken by both the managing agent and receiver.
Josephson said it was hard to gauge what a competitive offer would be because Stabilis bought the mortgage at a discount and he was unsure about the size of the down payment and other financing details.
Nonetheless, Josephson said he was exploring how a tax credit for CATCH, grant or the government excusing about $1 million in liens on the properties could help facilitate a sale.
Shishkin said Stabilis had not seen any offers from a nonprofit, but would be open to receiving and responding to legitimate offers. He would not disclose what price range would be considered.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
