Tenants Of Chinatown Walk-Up Fight Back Against New Landlord
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Some long-time tenants in Chinatown are blasting their landlord, who they say is trying to boot them from their homes.
At least three tenants are facing eviction from 164 Henry Street, and two have been waging that battle in court.
Others fear they may be next.
At a news conference yesterday, they claimed they're being unfairly asked to leave. The tenants say KBK Associates bought the walk-up building in August for about $2.5 million.
They claim the company wants them gone so it can raise the rent.
The tenants now pay about $700 a month, but say they were told the new rent would be as high as $1,200 a month.
"Most of the buildings in Chinatown are rent stabilized. The rent is cheaper than market-rate apartments in most cases, and landlords, knowing this, landlords wanting to make more money than they already do, typically do all that they can to kick out tenants,” said Esther Wang of the Chinatown Tenants Union. “That can range from not making repairs in buildings, not providing heat and hot water, and taking tenants to court. And that is what is happening in this building."
NY1 reached out to the lawyer for K-B-K Associates and is awaiting a response.