Take It or Leave, She Tells Tenants

Thursday, August 21, 2008
Albor Ruiz
Daily News

Say what you will about Maritza Lemoine, the owner of a building in El Barrio, but something cannot be denied: She is not one to beat around the bush.

"If you don't like it, move out," was her response when Cristina Ortega, 32, one of the long-suffering residents of the building Lemoine owns at 313 E. 115th St. in El Barrio, complained about her rent-stabilized apartment's decrepit condition.

"We haven't had hot water for six months, when it was cold they gave steam only a couple of hours, the bathroom ceiling has been leaking for two years, the refrigerator is in bad shape, the building is infested with roaches and other vermin," said Ortega, still in awe of the landlady's gall.

"The apartment is unhealthy, and my little one has had an infection for weeks now. And the owner wants to raise the rent."

It is not that at $1,500 per month, Ortega's rent is cheap. Particularly when the three-bedroom apartment she has lived in for five years with her three daughters - ages 12, 10 and 6 - is in shambles and the owner is unresponsive and insulting.

"The problem is that you are a bunch of filthy Mexicans who break things on purpose," Ortega said Lemoine has told her.

This, of course, is an old New York story: Greedy landlords doing their best to push out working-class immigrant and minority tenants from their homes to make way for affluent gentrifiers. And those immigrants and minorities pushing back to protect the places where they and their families live.

On Sunday, another skirmish in this continuously unfolding battle will take place when Lemoine's tenants, together with members of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio, stage a march "for dignity and against evictions."

They are the same people who a week before had gathered outside Lemoine's office and delivered a list of grievances and demands to her.

"We gave her seven days to meet the demands," said Juan Haro, of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio. "If she doesn't, we will take her to court."

Hard as it is to believe, on July 18, Lemoine sent letters to the tenants raising the rents for their rent-stabilized apartments by as much as $1,000 in some cases (such as Ortega's) and $500 or more in others.

Bernabé Feliciano, 25, has lived in the building for five years. His rent also is $1,500 per month, but according to the landlady's letter, it would go up to a whopping $2,024, enough to pay for luxury accommodations.

Yet part of Felciano's bathroom ceiling crashed to the floor four months ago and was never fixed. It left a gaping hole that continuously leaks water exactly above the toilet.

"There are a lot of people anxious to rent these apartments, so if you are not happy, move out," Lemoine told Feliciano when he complained, in what seems to be her standard response.

The tenants, though, were not willing to be abused, and on July 19 they held the first of four meetings with members of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio in the building's lobby to plan their response.

"She realized that we were organizing ourselves, and that we knew she could not raise the rents the way she did," Feliciano said. "And on Aug. 4, she sent out another letter saying that there had been a mistake and the rent hikes were canceled."

The Daily News left two messages for Lemoine asking for her side of the story but did not get any response.

This Sunday, at 12:30 p.m., the residents of 313 E. 115th St. in El Barrio will again stage a protest at the corner of Lexington Ave. and 116th St. For information, call the Movement for Justice in El Barrio at (212) 561-0555.

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