From super to shelter — evicted Harlem handyman heads to homelessness
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Carlos Zambrano was fired from his job as a Harlem superintendent after a new company purchased his building on West 116th Street. He lost his housing court case Wednesday and will be evicted. Photo courtesy of Zambrano.
By David Brand
A disabled building superintendent who served a Harlem housing complex for nearly a quarter century is heading to the city shelter system after losing an eviction battle in housing court Wednesday.
Carlos Zambrano, 48, lives with his wife and son at an apartment building on West 116th Street, where he worked as a superintendent until a LLC purchased the property and installed a new management company.
That management company, New Holland Residences, fired Zambrano and at least 14 other supers at other area buildings, according to attorney Kendall Wells from the New York Legal Assistance Group. Wells represents Zambrano and another fired super facing eviction proceedings.
The Eagle wrote about Zambrano’s pending eviction and the lack of protections for non-unionized superintendents last month.
Zambrano said he and his wife cannot afford a deposit on a new apartment and they will likely become homeless when they are forced to leave in early November.
“Once we move from here, we have to go to a shelter,” he said. “I was hoping the judge would give us until after the holiday.”
Zambrano continued to fight the holdover proceedings even as several other superintendents fired by New Holland cut their losses and left. One moved in with his girlfriend and sent his possessions back to his native Trinidad and Tobago.
“They gave me 21 days to leave and I left after they fired me,” said Glen Ford, who served a building on West 112th Street. “It cost me $7,000 to ship my stuff overseas.”
Tenants in Zambrano’s building and other nearby apartment complexes circulated petitions to rehire the terminated supers.
“Whether you are a long-time resident or new to the neighborhood, we have to support our friends and neighbors,” read one letter with the title “Injustice on 116th Street.”
“They have enabled the healthy integration of this neighborhood’s diverse constituents,” the letter continued.
David Schwartz, co-founder of New Holland’s parent company Sugar Hill Capital Partners, told the Eagle that the company was “not in a position to talk about staffing or procedures or our policy.”
“At this stage we’re still trying to figure out how to size our staff in light of the impact of the New York legislation” on tenant protections,” Schwartz said last month. “Our goal is to maintain a good environment for our employees and to look out for the interest of our investors.”
Carlos Zambrano’s building is located on a rapidly gentrifying strip of West 116th Street. Image via Google Maps.
Non-unionized superintendents have virtually no housing protections if they were hired as supers before moving into an apartment, said Sateesh Nori, the attorney-in-charge of the Queens Neighborhood Office of The Legal Aid Society. They have little standing in housing court because the state considers their cases as “employer-employee” relationships rather than “landlord-tenant” disputes, Nori said.
Their termination can hit communities hard, he said, because in addition to their nuts-and-bolts tasks, superintendents serve as neighborhood liaisons .
“Supers are not only working in the building, they’re part of the community,” Nori said. “It’s a real problem.”
Councilmember Robert Cornergy, chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, said he was “disheartened” to learn about Zambrano’s pending eviction.
“It is shameful that someone who worked so hard for so many years can just be kicked to the curb with no protection,” he said.
After learning about Zambrano and his fellow fired supers, Cornegy submitted legislation that would grant building superintendents just cause protections in firings.
“[I] urge the city to do more to protect building superintendents, especially considering the current housing and economic climate,” he said.
