Use this blog as a tool to learn more about your rights, as well as issues affecting tenants in the building. If you want to see posts on various topics, look at the blog archive appearing at the top right side of the blog - posts for the current month are listed individually, and you can also click on previous months to see the posts for those months as well.
Additional information about possible remedies appears in the column below the blog archive (see the right side of the blog). Tenants in this building DO have rights, and don't have to put up with intimidation and harassment. Tenants have to decide for themselves what they want to do, but doing nothing at all means that management and staff will continue to harass tenants.
A year ago, tenants started to be extremely concerned about alleged new policies in the building. Case managers started harassing tenants about cooperating with new rules involving home visits and increased contact with the social service staff. It's gotten worse over the past year, and some tenants have been threatened with phony "nuisance" threats, threats of legal action, and some tenants have been told they would be relocated to nursing homes against their will. One tenant claims that during a hospital stay over the summer, she was visited repeatedly by Francesca Rossi, Clinical Director, and told that she wouldn't be allowed back in Kenmore Hall and that plans had already been made for her to go to a nursing home. In addition, this same tenant claims that some of her property was removed from her room by social service staff and that to get it back, she would have to meet with them in the conference room and sort through it. Tenants are being accused of being hoarders and A.P.S. is being called on them. Half a dozen tenants have been taken to housing court over a variety of issues. Some tenants have issues with management and maintenance over maintenance issues. All of this gets incredibly complicated, and I can't comment on all of it because I don't have access to all the details. However, there are a few things tenants should be aware of:
Kenmore Hall is still classified as a residential apartment building according to city records, which means that tenants are still protected by Rent Stabilization law. It has NOT yet been reclassified as either a supportive housing or assisted living facility - but H.S.I. may be trying to reclassify it. Even if they do reclassify it, tenants are entitled to written notification.
Take a look at the blog post from December 30, 2013.
If you have a maintenance issue with your unit that cannot be resolved by notifying staff and management in writing (the procedure still stands that tenants are supposed to fill out work orders with their case managers), and then make yourself available to get the repairs made. If repairs don't happen within a reasonable period of time, or are inadequate, tenants can sue the landlord for repairs - this is an HP action in housing court.
Details on this are available in the post dated April 20, 2014. However, if tenants do this, and/or call 311 to report violations, tenants are legally obliged to make their unit accessible so the repair work can be done - see the post from April 21, 2014.
H.S.I.'s privacy policy, which seems to be ONLY available by clicking a link on their website at www.hsi-ny.org, goes into incredible detail about the kind of personal information they want to gather on tenants. They share this information with other organizations and agencies in order to develop "best practices" for dealing with formerly homeless people, and to obtain additional funding from government sources. I've informally asked a few other tenants if they've ever seen the policy posted anywhere, and they've told me they've never even heard of it. Most of the information H.S.I. wants to gather is considered protected personal information, and they pretend that tenants are fully aware of the policy and that consent is granted to gather it. It's very important that tenants read the policy, which I posted on this blog on January 19, 2014.
I'm posting all of this information here so that anyone can access the information. I can't afford to print everything out and reproduce it for people, but tenants can certainly get access to computers at local libraries (and possibly senior centers). If there are issues that tenants would like to see addressed here, let me know.
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