Queensbridge tenants sue NYCHA

Dannelly Rodriguez, a legal intern and CUNY Law student, speaks alongside a group of NYCHA residents who sued the housing authority over poor living conditions on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021.  Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

Residents of the New York City Public Housing Authority’s Queensbridge Houses gathered in the center of the sprawling housing complex to demand the agency fix their crumbling walls, moldy rooms and vermin infested apartments.

The residents’ complaints are outlined in a new lawsuit filed in Queens County Civil Court, Housing Part on Tuesday, Aug. 17.

“This is an extremely important because the tenants are going out to file these repair tickets and the repair people don't do the repairs and if they end up doing it, it’s pretty shoddy and it’s not good conditions,” said Robert Sanderman, a senior staff attorney at Queens Legal Services who is representing the dozen tenants suing NYCHA. “Tenants who are senior citizens or have disabilities, they're going through all this to get this work done, they go to court and then the issues tend not to resolve.”

“People are just fed up,” Sanderman added. “So, we want to make sure they have their voices heard.”

Tenants spoke Tuesday about dire conditions inside their homes, which have become increasingly more dangerous during the pandemic.

Catherine Bladykas is a mother of three living inside Queensbridge, which is one of the largest public housing communities in the U.S. She said her apartment is moldy, patched with asbestos and has all sorts of creatures roaming around.

“I had to move my twins into one bedroom because of black mold,” Bladykas said. “The smell is a constant reminder that I’m living in an unhealthy environment.”

Bladykas said the pandemic and the conditions inside her apartment have left her feeling trapped.

“It’s just so stressful,” she said. “I’m stressed that I’m in inhabitable living conditions, I’m stressed that if I advocate too much for my household they might retaliate and I might lose my home...It’s not safe outside and it’s not safe inside my home.”

Stan Morse, the tenant organizer for the Justice For All Coalition, blamed the deteriorating conditions on a lack of funding and attention from all levels of government.

“We need NYCHA fully funded now and we’re not taking any excuses anymore,” Morse said. “We’re going to fight, we’re going to do something to make some changes.”

Morse said that the Queensbridge lawsuit is the first of several. Attorneys and the Justice for All Coalition are currently working with tenants in the Ravenswood and Astoria Houses, who they say face similar conditions.

A NYCHA spokesperson said the agency “has not yet been served with the lawsuit,” and added that NYCHA “does not comment on pending litigation.”

Sanderman said the goal of the lawsuits is for the tenants to get their maintenance issues attended to and to create the precedent that when a ticket is filed, repairs are completed in a timely and proper way.

“[The tenants and organizers] have their plans to push for systemic change to get NYCHA to do the repairs they need to do so we don’t have to file lawsuits in the future,” Sanderman said. “This is a systemic issue.”