Jackson Heights tenants group demands wheelchair ramps at 133-unit complex

Tenants of a Jackson Heights apartment complex have urged their landlord to install wheelchair accessibility ramps at the 133-unit building. Photo courtesy of 89th Street Tenants Unidos

By David Brand

A Jackson Heights tenants group has achieved a partial victory in a years-long fight to compel a landlord to install accessibility ramps at its 133-unit housing complex. Days after the landlord called the cops on demonstrators, work has begun on two of the needed ramps.

The 89th Street Tenants Unidos has demanded that the landlord, Kedex Properties LLC, add Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramps for people in wheelchairs, senior citizens and families with strollers at two entrances to the apartment building at 89-07 34th Ave. The tenants are also urging Kedex to install ramps at steps on the first floor of the six-story complex. 

Kedex had resisted adding the accessibility features for roughly a decade, the tenants said. 

“These individuals struggle daily to enter and exit their own homes due to the difficulty in entering the lobby staircase,” the tenants association wrote in an email. “These individuals struggle daily to enter and exit their own homes due to the difficulty in entering the lobby staircase.”

The 89th Street Tenants Unidos Association sent a letter to Kedex in April 2019 and held a rally with Councilmember Daniel Dromm, State Sen. Jessica Ramos and city officials to urge Kedex to install the ramps on Feb. 28. 

Officials from Kedex called the police to break up the rally outside the building. 

A woman who answered the phone at the Kedex office Friday declined to say whether the company planned to install the ramps.

“That’s private information,” the woman said. “If you want, you can stop by and take a look.”

The woman hung up the phone. When contacted again, she said she was very busy and could not discuss the ramps. She hung up again.