Dangerous Staircase Forces 75 Residents Out Of Bowery Apartments

CHINATOWN, NY — Tenants of a crumbling Chinatown apartment building were forced out of their homes on Thursday after the Buildings Department found the main stairway of the building was unstable.

The stairway was deemed unsafe during a city inspection of the building Thursday evening, a spokesman for the Department of Buildings told Patch. At least 75 people were told they couldn't go home, the spokesman said.

The inspection was ordered by a judge who is overseeing a legal dispute between the residents and their landlord, who was identified by tenants and previous press reports as Joseph Betesh.

The owner now has two weeks to remove and replace the stairway, the Buildings Department said.

According to the DOB’s website, the building has an open violation for the unstable staircase, with a city-imposed deadline for repairs listed as June 2015. A DOB spokesperson said the repairs were completed in 2015, but the violation remained open because the owner did not complete the necessary paperwork to clear the violation.

The violation says the hallway staircase is “sloped at all floors” and pulling away from a wall. It says the owner should immediately “shore and brace” the staircase and begin work no later than June 3, 2015.

A spokesperson for the company that owns the building told Patch: “The safety of the occupants of 83-85 Bowery is our top priority and we are taking immediate steps to repair building infrastructure and make the property safe for habitation. While the DOB was correct to vacate the building in the interest of safety, we believe this action should have been taken long ago."

The vacate order sparked a protest of about 20 people in front of the building on Thursday afternoon. Residents and other community activists took to the streets with signs that called Betesh a “slumlord” and accused him of evicting the residents in an effort to profit off the location.

On Friday, City Council Member Margaret Chin and State Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou were at the site and said they are working with the city to ensure the tenants will be allowed back in two weeks.

“We’ve got to work to make sure that the landlord do the repairs as quickly as possible, and I want to know if he doesn’t do that what can the city do?” Chin told Patch.

“ The Department of Buildings wants to make sure the landlord actually abides by what the court system told him to do, which is to fix the stairwell," Niou added.

The protest Thursday was the latest chapter in a long-running feud between Betesh and the residents at the Bowery location. DNAinfo reported in July that Betesh had been attempting to remove residents so he can carry out structural repairs to the old building.

Betesh said he would bring the tenants back once the repairs were finished but refused to acknowledge that the building is rent stabilized, according to the report.

The residents struck down a deal that Public Advocate Letitia James procured that would move them from their apartments for a short period of time and put them back in after repairs were done, according to DNAinfo. Under the deal, Betesh would have been allowed to raise rents after they moved back.

Photo credit: Ben Feuerherd