Queens activists take eviction protest to Maspeth landlord's doorstep
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About 50 demonstrators protested outside a Maspeth home owned by landlords who they say illegally locked out a young woman from her apartment Jan. 4. Eagle photo by David Brand
By David Brand
A two-story brick home on a residential stretch of Maspeth was the unlikely scene of a large tenants’ rights protest Monday — and Thursday and Friday, too.
Demonstrators have gathered on the curb outside the 65th Place home since Jan. 6 to call attention to the owners, who they say illegally locked out a woman from a basement apartment in a nearby building they own. The lockout has left the woman homeless.
“Our mission is to get her back in her home because she was illegally evicted by the landlord here,” said Ridgewood Tenants Union organizer Raquel Namuche, the protest leader. “We’re upping the ante and letting them know we’re watching because what they’re doing is illegal.”
About 50 people participated in a call and response led by Namuche Monday afternoon as curious Maspeth residents stopped along 65th Place to watch the scene. A few pizza boxes and a carton of Dunkin Munchkins sat on a table next to a folding chair and megaphone.
“We will be here every single day until your tenant is back in her apartment,” the protestors recited.
The tenant, a young mother named Amanda, said she was locked out of her apartment on 54th Street in Maspeth while she was in New Jersey. The landlords say they told Amanda she would have to relocate while they fixed a broken sewage line, but Amanda said she was never informed about that work.
Namuche and the Ridgewood Tenants Union say several factors suggest the landlords were trying to force her out permanently.
When Amanda returned to the building on Jan. 4, the basement windows were boarded up, a key was broken off in the door lock, a padlocked chain was wrapped around the front gate, her mailbox was missing and a new camera had been installed, she said. A sign on the door said the home was undergoing a sewer line repair. “Sorry for any inconvenience,” the sign read.
Amanda, who declined to give her last name because she fears retaliation, said she has not been able to retrieve any possessions or clothes from the home.
“I can’t go inside,” she said.
She said she has lived in the apartment for more than two years and owes a few months rent because the COVID-19 pandemic has limited her income. Still, she said, the lockout came “out of nowhere.” The landlords had not commenced legal eviction proceedings and they had seemed willing to work with her to recover the back rent, she said.
Under state law, it is illegal to lock someone out of their apartment without a court order if they have lived there for at least 30 days. Amanda said she has contacted Queens Legal Services to begin a Housing Court case and return to the home — to be "restored to possession” in legal parlance.
The state enacted an eviction moratorium in December to prevent people from becoming homeless during the COVID pandemic, even if they have not paid their rent. The measure will last at least until the end of February and until May for tenants who file paperwork claiming financial hardship.
Amanda said she stayed in a cheap Manhattan hotel room for a few days before calling the Ridgewood Tenants Union. They helped her get some money reimbursed by the landlords.
But the landlords, Luke, Mary and Michael Lambe, have not opened the door to let her back into the apartment, she said.
The property owners have not responded to phone calls seeking comment.
On a local Facebook group, a neighbor posted surveillance camera screenshots of the demonstrators and said that the “well meaning protestors are being played” by Amanda, who she said has prevented the landlords from entering the unit to fix the sewage line.
“Landlord is my nephew’s landlord and has never ever tried to evict anyone during covid,” she added.
The protest was the latest targeted demonstration outside a New York City landlord’s home, but the first conducted by Ridgewood Tenants Union, a prominent activist network in Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale and Middle Village. The organization has held rallies, marches and even overnight demonstrations to oppose evictions throughout the pandemic.
Namuche said her organization plans to continue protesting outside the Maspeth homes to bring attention to wrongful evictions.
“Why this is so egregious is we’re in a pandemic,” she said. “Illegal lockouts are always a crime, but to do it during a pandemic is even worse.”
