October 20, 2007 / Fort Greene–Clinton Hill / Perspective / Greene Acres

‘Model’ landlord is tenant-tough

By Dana Rubinstein

The Brooklyn Paper

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Oh, irony of ironies. A building owned by one of the city’s best known tenants’ rights organization is riven with peeling paint, broken locks and apartments with no heat in winter, according to residents who accuse the organization of perpetrating the same kind of neglect for which it attacks other landlords.

The Pratt Area Community Council, a decades-old housing organization based in Fort Greene, owns and manages 57 buildings, one of them a six-story, 36-unit rent-subsidized building at Gates and Franklin avenues, on the border of Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

This is the same building the state’s Energy Research and Development Authority lauded in 2005 as “setting new standards in energy efficiency,” and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce cited in May as a paradigm of good affordable housing.

If only they’d spoken with the residents, who complain of a litany of problems, from buckling plaster covered in a mold-like substance to leaky ceilings and peeling paint. But the most prominent complaint is the lack of heat.

“Half of last winter, the heaters were brick cold,” said Roosevelt Philippe, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with his wife and two children. Philippe claims that no matter how often he has called management, only once has someone come by to “breathe” his radiators.

To ensure the comfort of his 6-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, he bought three space heaters: one for his bedroom, one for his children’s room, and one for the hallway.

Next door to Philippe lives Marcus Holmes, who shares a two-bedroom apartment and has also repeatedly complained to PACC about the lack of heat.

“Sometimes you can see your breath,” said Holmes. When he complained to management, they told him that they could not control the heat.

Rather, that it was controlled by the state legislature.

Deb Howard, the executive director of PACC, was under the same impression.

“We can’t turn up the heat,” said Howard. “Albany has to.”

Everyone (including the building’s own management!) seemed to be under the mistaken impression that, because the Energy Research and Development Authority helped install an energy-efficient boiler and heat sensors in all of the apartments, some omnipotent environmental consultant up in Albany was monitoring the heat levels.

Sal Graven, an agency spokesman, cleared that up.

“The authority has no control over the delivery of the heat,” he said. And after a few phone calls, Howard arrived at the same conclusion.

Howard said that the heat was at one point monitored by an energy consultant in Long Island City, but admitted that that contract expired in 2005 and since then, PACC has screwed up the heat.

“We are aware of the problem of inadequate heat in the building, which has been a frustration for us as well as the tenants,” said Howard.

This week, Howard said the former Long Island City consultant would visit and show PACC how to monitor the heat levels.

“We will address this situation before the heating season begins,” promised Howard.

The head of the tenants association, which was formed this summer to get the jump on the colder weather, hopes that Howard follows through.

“The principal reason we got together in the summer was because the lack of heat in the winter was so bad for us,” said Portia Adams, who stays warm in the winter by leaving her oven door open and turning on a space heater. “It’s a shame. And I hope we get enough attention so we get heat this winter.”

Maybe then, Howard and her staff can install a new lock on the front door. Adams says it hasn’t worked in months.

Dana Rubinstein is a staff writer at The Brooklyn Paper.

The Kitchen Sink

Local kid rock sensation Audra Tsanos, and her band AudraRox, will entertain the kiddie set at a PS 11 school benefit on Nov. 3. We loved her with Music for Aardvarks, but we really hope she’ll play “(I got a) Sugar High!” PS 11 is at 419 Waverly Ave., between Greene and Gates avenues. The show is at 4 pm. For tickets, visit www.ps11brooklyn.org. …

Sometimes, we wish we had an office dog, just so we could dress him up as a paper boy and enter him in the Ninth Annual Great Pupkin Dog Costume Contest on Oct. 27, hosted by the Fort Greene Pups dog owners association. Even if your mongrel doesn’t have an outfit yet, head to the contest in Fort Greene Park (at the top of the hill) at 11:30 pm. For information, visit www.fortgreenepups.org.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper