This week in Manhattan, a group of Chinatown resident filed a lawsuit against a New York private equity group, under a recently passed law that allows tenants to sue landlords in Housing Court for using threats and other forms of harassment to force them out: Harassment Is Focus of Chinatown Tenants' Suit.
According to the complaint, filed by residents at 55 and 61 Delancey Streeets, harassment by the landlord includes disrupting three tenant meetings by calling the police; rejecting rent payments; frivolously pursuing legal eviction proceedings; suspending essential services for a prolonged period of time; and ordering tenants to remove Chinese cultural symbols and decorations from their doors.
The list of complaints goes on and on. Judging from the article, these are property owners engaging in some shady practices against the Chinatown tenants -- unfortunately, a common occurrence. Common enough, in fact, that the residents aren't taking it anymore, and they're fighting back. Stand up to shady landlords!
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