Relying On Guarantors Tops List Of Demands For Central Bk Tenants

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN – Kate Klenfner doesn't have a guarantor. That' why, in Bed-Stuy, she felt lucky to have found an apartment where roaches pour out of the faucet, mice crawl out of gaping holes and into her bed to die, and the heat doesn’t get turned on in the winter.

“Always, I’ve looked for apartments without a guarantor,” said Klenfner, a 40-year-old lifelong New Yorker. “It’s never been on the table that that’s an option.”

A new study from StreetEasy shows that, in central Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights and Bushwick, tenants prioritize being able to use guarantors above any other amenity.

While Williamsburg renters want lofts and would-be Carroll Gardens residents look for outdoor space, central Brooklyn apartment seekers hope a guarantor, typically a parent, can co-sign their lease.

That's because they can't afford to live in the neighborhood if somebody with money doesn't back them up.

Landlords typically require guarantors from applicants who don't make 40 times the monthly rent in a year — that's a six-figure annual income requirement for a $2,500-a-month apartment — or have a poor credit score.

Guarantors co-sign the lease as extra insurance that the landlord will get paid and, as a StreetEasy guide noted, these co-signers must make 80 times the rent, or $200,000-a-year for that $2,500 home.

According to former real estate broker Francesca Hoffman, the guarantor requirement has created a "disturbing" real estate trend in central Brooklyn.

“Clients with low or mediocre credit scores would find it very challenging to find an apartment if they could not secure a guarantor or provide extra security up front,” Hoffman wrote in an essay for The Billfold.

“Over time, I learned that unless my ‘unqualified clients’ were white and educated and/or could secure a guarantor whose income met the astronomical requirements, I was, most of the time, out of luck.”

“Realtors won’t talk to me,” added Klenfner, who has fibromyalgia and relies on Social Security payments. “I’m worthless to them.”

Klenfner started renting rooms in Bed-Stuy in her 20s — she couldn’t afford an apartment — because it reminded her of the pre-gentrification East Village she knew as a kid, she said.

“I love the neighborhood so much,” Klenfner said. “I love my block and my neighbors."

But when she moved into a room near Tompkins and Halsey avenues four years ago, Klenfner began to learn what a home that went for less than $800-a-month in Bed-Stuy could cost her.

The building had roaches, mice, sewage bubbling in the sinks and a heating system so poor Klenfner could see her own breath inside the apartment in the winter.

Klenfner began withholding rent after her landlord addressed the rodent problem by sending a man into her home with a bottle of Febreze and some duct tape and the heat problem by suggesting Klenfner, whose chronic pain was augmented by the cold, buy a blanket, she said.

The landlord addressed his rent problem by trying to evict her about 15 times, she said.

"Fortunately I know my rights," Klenfner said.

Klenfner teamed up with a fellow resident, connected with Legal Aid and eventually the city agreed to turn the building, where city inspectors found almost 220 city violations, over to an administrator, the New York Times reported.

Klenfner still lives in the apartment with holes in the floor caused by a recent fire. And while the new management is quick to make minor repairs, city agencies have a lot of paperwork to go through before they can make major ones, she said.

But by the end of this month, and for the first time in her life, Klenfner hopes to have signed a lease on a Bed-Stuy apartment that she can afford without a guarantor.

“This is kind of my chance,” Klenfner said. “It will be a great apartment at some point.”

Photos courtesy of Kate Klenfner, used with permission