Tenants Who Endured NYC Slumlord's Horrors Can Get Paid, AG Says

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Steve Croman's tenants will be able to get paid for their suffering under the notorious New York City slumlord, the state attorney general announced. Several hundred current and former tenants of Croman's buildings can apply for a piece of the $8 million restitution Croman was required to pay under a December consent decree with state prosecutors.

"This office has zero tolerance for predatory landlords who seek to line their pockets at the expense of their tenants’ wellbeing," Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement Tuesday. "Now, Croman tenants will finally get the restitution and protections they deserve as a result of this unprecedented settlement— the largest-ever with an individual landlord."

Croman agreed to the payout last year when he settled a civil lawsuit in which the state accused him of pushing out rent-stabilized tenants so he could replace them with new renters.

Several hundred current and former Croman tenants are potentially eligible to apply for a piece of the restitution fund, which will be distributed equally among those who make claims, Underwood's office said.

Tenants will be eligible if they lived in a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartment Croman owned between July 1, 2011 and December 1, 2017, got a buyout of less than $20,000, and no one else living in their apartment got restitution money, Underwood's office said.

The administrator of the claims mailed notices and forms this week to current and former tenants, which will also be available online at www.cromanrestitutionfund.com, the Attorney General's Office said. Money will be given to tenants in installments over 38 to 42 months, the office said.

Croman oversaw more than 100 apartment buildings in Manhattan, including dozens in the East Village. His tenants reported "ceilings collapsing in their children's bedrooms, sewage backflowing through their pipes and rain pouring through holes in the roof," the Attorney General's Office said last year.

Croman was sentenced to a year in jail on Rikers Island and agreed to pay $5 million to the state with his guilty plea to financial crimes last year in a separate criminal case.

"While no amount of money will ever adequately compensate tenants for the abuse they endured at the hands of Croman, those who suffered will now receive at least some of the compensation they deserve," state Sen. Brad Hoylman said in a statement.

(Image: Photo by B.Stefanov/Shutterstock.com)