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How to Fight an International Landlord


Photo (cc) TAPorto

In late 2007, East Harlem tenant, Victor Calentre opened his rent check to find an additional bill charging several hundred dollars for unspecified repairs he knew nothing about. He assumed it was a mistake on the part of his landlord, British-based real-estate conglomerate, Dawnay Day International. But as the fine increased month after month -- reaching $8,000 -- Calentre suspected that this was not merely an error and soon discovered he was not alone.

Spurred on by Calentre and his fellow tenants, Movement for Justice in El Barrio embarked on a campaign to fight Dawnay Day and protect residents of rent stabilized apartments. The British firm, though, was no ordinary New York landlord, and so the Movement for Justice went beyond conventional tactics, framing their effort as a fight over consumer rights rather than housing, using the logic that tenants are, in fact, consumers too. The group also reached far outside its neighborhood to oppose Dawnay Day, organizing a network of British activists to confront the firm on its home turf. In doing this, the Movement for Justice believes it may reshape the way similar organizations fight gentrification.

Troubled Buildings

Originally, many tenants celebrated when Dawnay Day took over their buildings. Tenants had accused the previous landlord, Steven Kessner, of neglecting basic repairs for rent-stabilized tenants and offering financially desperate tenants buy-back sums far below the market rate.

According to the tenants, though, Dawnay Day, has continued and even intensified Kessners's efforts to drive out the buildings' rent-stabilized tenants. The new landlord began issuing rent-stabilized tenants erroneous fines, like Calentre's. It charged residents for false repairs and appliances that were never purchased, and set fines for improper use of appliances. Initially bewildered, the tenants soon became convinced these charges were not mistakes, but administered selectively to rent-stabilized tenants in an effort to intimidate and drive them out, allowing the owner to charge the market rate.

"When it became clear that Dawnay Day was worse than the previous owner, we had to sit down and figure out how to take on this multi-national corporation," said Juan Haro, a leading member of Movement for Justice. "We had never before faced this kind of landlord."

After several strategy meetings, the 440-member tenant group settled on a two-pronged strategy: It would file an innovative lawsuit and also would begin to build an international support base to confront the firm in its home base in Britain.

Phil Blakely, director of Dawnay Day, said in an interview with WNYC that his firm had done nothing wrong. "I am … sort of upset and disappointed that we've been accused of the things we've been accused of and that we are as bad or worse then Steven Kessner," Blakely said.

Tenants as Consumers

The tenants wanted to take legal action against Dawnay Day to clear the frivolous debts. With the pro bono help of lawyers from Harlem Legal Services (the 125th Street branch of Manhattan Legal Services) and the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, the Movement for Justice sorted through already-tested legal approaches, none of which looked promising.

Because Dawnay Day was not necessarily charging incorrect amounts of rent, housing laws -- on which tenant groups usually rely -- did not offer much remedy. These laws pertain more to rent payment and collection than to separate charges like those issued by Dawnay Day.

"What to do here was not explicitly covered in housing law, so we had to look at what other bodies of law could cover this practice," said Chaumtoli Huq, a lawyer with Harlem Legal Services. "Then we found that this case was more appropriately covered by consumer protection laws. … All tenants are also consumers."

The Movement for Justice decided to incorporate consumer laws to the fight over housing displacement. A first step was to notify its tenant members of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which guarantees a consumer's right to challenge or receive written verification of debt. Members who had received false charges then wrote to Dawnay Day, notifying it of the law and demanding verification of their charges.

This strategy worked, but only temporarily.

For several months, the tenants' debts decreased or, in some cases, disappeared. But then false charges appeared again. Calentre, for instance, had fines -- for repairs that were never done, a refrigerator that he hadn't bought, interest and late fees -- in excess of $8,000 when he protested to Dawnay Day. He then watched the charges fall to the low hundreds, but a few months later, they climbed back up to nearly $4,000, where they hover currently and without explanation.

"Now, the bills don't even say what the charges are for," Calentre said. "They just show the amount that is owed in addition to the rent."

As it became clear that the letter-writing initiative provided no permanent fix, the Movement for Justice elected to file a lawsuit against Dawnay Day. Because the firm had complied, at least momentarily, with the tenants' requests of debt verification, they could not take them to court for violating the debt collection act.

Sifting through New York State consumer law, the group's lawyers found a statute in the New York General Business Law forbidding false and deceptive business practices. Because issuing false charges to customers falls under this law's provision, the Movement for Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of 22 tenants, like Calentre, who had received allegedly false charges from Dawnay Day. The suit demanded that the charges be eliminated and that Dawnay Day refrain from such activity in the future.

Though the suit is still pending, the plaintiffs are optimistic. They say Dawnay Day asked for a settlement, which the Movement for Justice rejected because it did not include an all-encompassing commitment to stop issuing the false charges.

International Effort

At the same time, the Movement for Justice was taking the tenant's fight to Europe and particularly the United Kingdom, where Dawnay Day is headquartered and well known. The Movement for Justice had concluded that building a support base on the company's home turf was an essential tactic to their fight.

"We could have kept the struggle local, but targeting Dawnay Day in just Harlem or New York City would not be successful," Calentre said. "This is really an international struggle."

The Movement for Justice has circulated an online pamphlet explaining the situation and seeking help from a wider community. It called for the creation of a "multi-national network of allies and supporters who will stand by and support us in our struggle as we expand our resistance to take on Dawnay Day Group in London and any other global, national or local threat to our right to dignified housing, autonomy and self-determination." Though no one knew how effective the pamphlet would be, it generated a fair amount of interest.

"Lots of people stepped up -- more than we had imagined," said Haro, who went to Europe to press the tenants' case. "And many of them said, 'if you come, we will generate support for you here on the ground'…They understood that this was not just about raising awareness, but for creating a practical support base."

With such a response in March 2008, Haro went to England, Scotland, France and Spain, to meet with groups that offered to hold forums about the Dawnay Day situation. As Dawnay Day remains little known in the U.S., a main objective of the trip was spreading information about the firm's tactics among people somewhat familiar with the company. Over the course of the six-week trip, Haro attended 25 meetings and public forums.

After these events, "movement support committees" formed consisting of people who pledged to give their active support to the New York tenants. These activists agreed to participate in direct action efforts to raise awareness in Dawnay Day's home country in order to more effectively apply pressure to the firm.

As the trip concluded, the Movement for Justice and its new international allies began planning a mid-October action, in which press conferences and demonstrations would be held at Dawnay Day's offices in both London and Scotland. By mid-summer, the plane tickets for the event had been purchased, the local activists' commitments secured, and the plan solidified.

But then the unexpected occurred. A victim of the global financial meltdown, Dawnay Day posted major losses in July, and began selling off assets worldwide. With the landlord's future uncertain, Movement for Justice canceled the October action and refunded their plane tickets.

Today, while the lawsuit continues, the Movement for Justice is refraining from direct action against Dawnay Day until it is certain as to whether Dawnay Day will retain its East Harlem real estate. Meanwhile, basic repairs go undone and false fines continue, though the tenants have noticed that the landlord has become a bit less brazen in the latter practice.

Although the murkiness of the situation has frustrated some of the tenants, the Movement for Justice sees the past two years as a triumph in organization and innovation, strengthening its position to negotiate with the buildings' future owners and other landlords. The group also takes satisfaction in seeing that its efforts have created a template that other tenants' organizations can use. For example, Queens Vantage Tenants Council, a tenant group in Queens, has adopted the use of consumer law in a different fight over false charges.

"The outcome remains to be seen here, but the general principle is that we need to look at other bodies of law and be creative in the ways we confront landlords," Huq said. "As landlords like Dawnay Day come in, they bring in new practices. So we need to look at these new problems and be ready to come up with novel solutions."

Spencer Woodman is senior at Sarah Lawrence College studying writing and economics and a freelance writer. Jerry Deleon and Tom Kiely provided translating for this article. Joe Lamport is the assistant director of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, a coalition of community housing organizations.

The Tough Battle to Repeal Tough Drug Laws


Photo (cc) llimllib

"This is the year to reform the Rockefeller drug laws," Gov. David Paterson has just finished saying Tuesday morning in Albany. He stands before a crowd of hundreds as a man with shaggy gray hair approaches him with a stack of signatures. Paterson shakes the man's hand and smiles. One by one advocates from across the state present the governor with piles of petitions and declare their support for the "full repeal of the Rockefeller Drug laws," New York's harsh rules on sentencing of drug offenders. Advocates are excited to have Paterson listening to them.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith also have dropped by to support the cause. But the truth is, Paterson and these advocates are talking about two different things. The advocates, who carry a total of 30,000 signatures, are demanding full repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws, while Paterson is advocating changing the laws.

This Tuesday, hundreds of drug reform advocates descended on Albany, and, in sharp contrast from their chilly reception in years past, found the governor, Senate majority leader and Assembly Speaker all waiting to greet them and listen to their concerns.

The Assembly recently passed a Rockefeller drug law reform bill that emphasizes the importance of treatment over incarceration and restores a hefty amount of judicial discretion in the sentencing of drug cases. It is what New York State drug reform advocates have always wanted -- sort of.

What the Assembly Bill Does Not Do

Advocates of major changes to New York's drug laws are walking a thin line between jubilation and disappointment these days. The Assembly's legislation would make about 50 percent to 60 percent of currently incarcerated offenders eligible for treatment instead of incarceration. It would increase funding for drug rehabilitation programs and community-based alternatives to prison. But it does not restore judges' discretion in a number of cases.

Offenders subject to mandatory prison sentences would include people who sell more than a half ounce or possess more than four ounces of a hard drug; people who have a violent felony conviction in the last 10 years; and adults who sell drugs to minors.

Advocates stress that they object not to such limits but to the fact that the Assembly bill leaves mandatory sentences intact and still judges offenders by the amount of narcotics in their possession at the time of their arrest. Reform proponents want to see offenders judged on the individual's prior record and what his or her role in the transaction was. They say it is important to differentiate between an addict selling drugs to maintain a habit and a higher-level drug dealer.

Politicians, though, find it difficult to do away with mandatory minimum sentences on offenders whose crimes seem serious because politicians don't want to be seen as soft on criminals.

In other words, the Assembly bill is not full repeal. "The public needs to know that this is not what we have been fighting for," said Caitlin Dunklee of the Drop the Rock Campaign. She estimated the Assembly legislation would leave 50 percent of future drug cases subject to the constraints of mandatory sentencing.

In this, there is a sense of deja vu. Dunklee said that in 2004 and 2005, when the legislature made some reforms to the drug laws, "it was painted as full repeal. People stopped caring and we continued to have these harsh laws on the book."

Whatever its shortcomings, though, the Assembly bill might not become law even though Democrats control both houses of the legislature and the governor's mansion. This presents a bit of a quandary for those advocating repeal. They have to push the Senate to act on a bill similar to the Assembly's and at the same time remind legislators that this is not the end in the fight to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws.

"The stars are the most favorably aligned they ever have been, "said Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. "We have a Democratic governor, the Democrats control the Senate, and we have the fiscal crisis. Because in the end this is an issue of money."

The Senate's Turn

Insiders say Silver has rushed forward on progressive bills such as drug reform to earn himself political capital and reaffirm his base after facing two primary challengers last year, all the while knowing that Smith would not have the support to pass them in the Senate.

Gangi admitted that there is a lot of opposition to the Assembly reform bill in the Senate. "We hear it is not just Republicans but blue dog Democrats," he explained.

Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson of Port Washington, for one, has made it clear that he has "significant reservations" about the Assembly's reform bill, although Johnson's spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, said that Johnson "is not prepared to negotiate those reservations in the media."

Rather than try to hash out the differences between his conference members on an individual reform bill, Smith has decided to make Rockefeller reforms part of the Senate budget package. Smith told the gathered advocates on Tuesday, "I want to assure you all that what we are going to do, in this year, in this budget, is reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws."

Azzopardi said Smith's decision to move the drug reform legislation into the budget process makes "a certain amount of sense, as both sides of the debate have economic implications."

Advocates for Rockefeller reform and repeal say that changing the drug laws and allowing judge's to send offenders to treatment rather than jail will drastically reduce the amount the state spends on incarceration. Opponents say sending offenders to treatment will be a financial burden on the state.

Republican opponents of Rockefeller reform do not find Smith's decision as appealing. Republican Sen. Frank Padavan of Queens told the Post, "I think we ought to be very careful when we start talking about putting 2,000 drug pushers on the street. That's outrageous to put in the budget. It's the worst form of political chicanery."

Paterson's Concerns

Uncertainty in the Senate is not the only obstacle standing in the way of the Assembly's bill becoming law; advocates are growing ever more concerned that the man who started the discussion of drug law reform this year, mentioning it in his State of the State address, might be wavering in his support. They say that Paterson's representatives at the negotiating table want to scale back parts of the Assembly's bill. One of the sticking points apparently is restoring a judge's discretion in drug cases where the offender has committed a second felony.

Advocates say that Paterson or his staff are posturing in preparation for the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Paterson's position has indeed changed since he was Senate minority leader in 2004. Back then, Paterson proposed drug law reform that would have included restoring judicial discretion for all second-felony drug offenders convicted of B-E level felonies (felonies are graded from A to E by their level of seriousness) as long as they did not have a violent offense in their history.

A spokesperson for Paterson said, "On the biggest issue the governor agrees on the fact that judges should be able to exercise discretion on non-violent felonies. The governor has put together a working draft bill to discuss with the Assembly and Senate, and they are working on their differences." The spokesperson said that disagreements exist over mandatory minimum sentences and to what extent any changes should be retroactive.

Paterson’s office reportedly is concernedthat making the law retroactive would be prohibitively expensive because of the number of resentencing petitions that would be filed.

The Next Moves

In the end, if Smith's gambit pays off and the Senate moves on reforms, advocates say they will celebrate but at the same time know that there is more to do. They say they have known they were in a battle for "incremental change" from the start. In their opinion there are a lot of good aspects to the Assembly bill. They just worry that another time where the political stars align may not come along soon.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who has been a staunch critic of the Rockefeller drug laws, said there is one gigantic benefit of the Assembly bill if it should pass: funding for alternative treatments. "The criminal justice system is open 24 hours a day," said Soares. "It's a shame people have to come here to get the help they need. But because of this reform less people will have to go through the criminal justice system to get that help."

Court Upholds a Hole in 'Safety Net'


Photo (cc) Tracy Collins
A woman at an anti-eviction block party in Bergen Hill, Brooklyn

The New York Court of Appeals has ended years of litigation with its recent decision that the state's Safety Net Assistance program does not assure that shelter allowances it provides will be adequate to rent a home and that the allowances cannot be challenged by benefit recipients.

This ruling therefore makes a clear distinction between the Family Assistance program, which guarantees an "adequate" allowance for shelter and the Safety Net program, which does not.

A Struggle to Pay the Rent

The plaintiffs in the current lawsuit, Doris Brownley and Janee Nelson, both single mothers, commenced the lawsuit in 2002. They were acting on their own behalf and for all families with children who receive Safety Net Assistance benefits but who are faced with eviction from their homes because the New York City shelter allowance will not cover their rent. In addition, they do not qualify for a rent supplement under other programs or qualify for a supplement that still does not meet their needs. In other words, the rent contributions they receive from Safety Net are less than their rent, leaving them to face eviction and the risk that their children will be placed in foster care.

Doris Brownley and her young son lived in Brooklyn in a one-bedroom rent stabilized apartment. The rent was $879.75 per month when the current round of litigation began. She received public assistance until she found a job and also began attending college. However, after an accident and surgery she lost her job and reapplied for welfare. In the meantime, she fell behind in her rent, and the Safety Net program in which she was enrolled paid only partial rent to her landlord.

Her landlord initiated a non-payment proceeding against Brownley who was unable to pay the balance of $579.75 but once in Housing Court agreed, unrealistically, to pay a judgment of $5,050 for arrears within a month.

Janee Nelson lived in the Bronx with her then-four year old son, her stepfather and three young stepsisters in a three-bedroom rent stabilized apartment with a rent of $1,401. Nelson, too, had lost her job and was attending school. With various benefits to members of the household they still fell $401 short on their rent. In March 2004, a non-payment proceeding was brought in Housing Court where, to forestall eviction, like Brownley, she agreed to pay within a very short time $4,055, including arrears and fees, which she did not have and could not obtain.

Allowances for Shelter

Eligible individuals who receive public assistance for housing costs under the Family Assistance program are limited to the five-year period of "welfare" that a person may receive in her lifetime, regardless of need. This is a combined federal and state program that followed the enactment of the Clinton administration's Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996. In the wake of the federal mandate to "eliminate welfare as we know it," New York enacted the Family Assistance program for families with dependent minor children, replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children. After the five years, eligible people may seek the protection of Safety Net, which provides shelter assistance.

Under the Family Assistance program and a case begun two decades ago in the late eighties, and well known as "Jiggetts," funding must be adequate to provide a family with a home. Jiggetts, which was also ultimately decided by the Court of Appeals, held that this state has a duty to establish shelter allowances for Family Assistance recipients that bear a reasonable relationship to the cost of housing in New York City. With that mandate, "allowances shall provide for the support, maintenance and needs of one or both parents if in need and in the home and for the support, maintenance and needs of the other relative if he or she is without sufficient means of support, provided such parent, parents and relatives are not receiving federal supplemental security income payments and/or additional state payments for which they are eligible." In Jiggetts, the courts found in 1988 that shelter allowances did not bear a reasonable relation to the cost of housing in New York City, and new shelter allowances were established.

The more recent court case sought to extend that reasoning to the Safety Net assistance. The court ruled, however, that while Safety Net may be available after the 60-month limit on Family Assistance runs out, it does not have the Jiggetts provision and does not have to be adequate to pay for a reasonable home. Plaintiffs had attempted to intervene in the Jiggetts lawsuit, but were directed to commence their own court action, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeals.

Judge Victoria Graffeo, writing for the entire court and upholding the lower courts, distinguished the two relevant programs. Family Assistance, she wrote, is for the explicit purpose of enabling a family to "raise a needy child properly, having regard for the physical, mental and moral well-being of such child," in light of New York's commitment to the protection of children and the maintenance of children in the home. Safety Net Assistance, however, she continued, "places no restriction on how long a person is eligible to receive ... benefits, applies more broadly and is not contingent upon the presence of children in the household."

Thus, the state's highest court concluded that the adequacy requirement does not apply outside Family Assistance and that that was the intent of the legislature. "It was," the opinion said, "the burden of the legislative and executive branches of government to weigh 'the intractable economic, social and even philosophical problems present by public welfare assistance programs.'"

The court dismissed the plaintiffs' arguments of unconstitutionality saying, "there is no right to a constitutionally prescribed minimum shelter allowance since it is the prerogative of the legislature to determine who is 'needy' and allocate the public dollar accordingly."

According to Scott Rosenberg of the Legal Aid Society, counsel for the plaintiffs, both Brownley and Nelson lost their apartments when they could not pay the rent. No other information was available about them or their families.

The State of New York was represented by Oren Zeve of the office of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. A brief in support of the tenants was submitted by several public interests groups including Community Service Society of New York.

Emily Jane Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court Justice



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