Twenty-five Nyack Plaza tenants are suing their landlord for negligence after they say the property management company failed to provide temporary housing when a June fire displaced them from their homes.
31 adults and eight children, some as young as 16 months old, were displaced after a fire broke out at the 400 building of the Nyack Plaza apartments around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 3.
The fire was confirmed to be caused by a faulty exhaust fan between units 408 and 409, which began to spark and smoke up earlier that morning, according to tenant reports.
According to the lawsuit filed Thursday, Sept. 25, the tenants learned about the fire through word of mouth “in the absence of fire alarms, fire suppression systems and/or similar devices being activated.”
Many of the residents stood in the street and watched for hours as their possessions, homes and livelihoods went up in smoke.
Immediately after the fire, the building was condemned and displaced residents were provided temporary housing at the Element Hotel in Spring Valley on behalf of Mayor Joe Rand, the Village of Nyack and community volunteers.
However, that temporary solution quickly turned into another waiting game for the Plaza’s former residents, who according to attorneys from Fellows Hymowitz Rice PLLC, “failed to take immediate and reasonable efforts to restore the tenants to their homes.”
“The management’s negligence caused the fire through faulty equipment and inadequate firewalls. But the residents are the ones now suffering because of their carelessness,” said Bishop Ron Stringfield of St. John’s Deliverance Tabernacle Church at a press conference Thursday. “We are here because silence is not an option and justice delayed is justice denied.”
Where are the victims of the Nyack Plaza fire now?
Over four months after the fire, NAACP President Nicole Hines said all affected tenants still do not have a permanent housing situation and some have been forced to live in “less than desirable conditions.”
Hines said a majority of tenants have found temporary housing, but each lease is “month-to-month,” leaving residents still without a guarantee of shelter in the coming months.
Anastasia Amella, 30, and her 16-month old son were temporarily relocated to efficiency housing in Nyack, where she said she doesn’t even have a stovetop to properly cook food.
“To this day, we still haven’t been contacted and asked if we were okay. They haven’t stepped up and helped us with housing,” said Amella at the press conference, holding her son. “They didn’t help us with meals the day of the fire. They came by and they just watched all of us sitting there, staring at the smoke. They didn’t ask us how we were doing. They didn’t ask us how they could help.”
Other residents have been moved across the county in areas like Haverstraw, Spring Valley and New City, Hines said. She said at least one resident is still living in the Element Hotel and paying out of pocket for their stay.
“I just wanted to say it’s just a little disheartening that we’re in this community and we’re looked upon as we’re less than,” said Katina Crowder, who watched as her apartment was being demolished in order to ventilate the fire.
She worried at the time that she didn’t have renter’s insurance. Now, she and her children are staying at her mother’s house nearby.
“It feels like we’re trying to be pushed out and it hurts,” she said. “I’ve been in Nyack since I was 2 years old and to end up with having nothing, and feeling like we’re less than because we live in low income housing? It’s just not a good feeling at all.”
Robert L. Fellows, lead attorney for the tenants, said the Plaza landlord and managing agents still have not taken responsibility for the fire, which residents claimed stemmed from negligence in “failing to make timely repairs and continuing to ignore tenant complaints.”
“Why did this have to happen? Why didn’t the insurance company, Travelers, or the landlord or the managing agent provide temporary, suitable housing for these individuals?” said Fellows. “Would it have been so difficult for the insurance company to recognize their human needs and treat them as humans that matter?”
Who is responsible for the Nyack Plaza Fire?
The lawsuit identifies Nyack Plaza Housing Associates, LLC. and Community Housing Management Corporation, both Elmsford-based property management companies, as the parties responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and safety of the units.
According to public records, Community Housing Management Corp., led by President and CEO Eugene Conroy, 85 of Lewisboro, is indicated to be the principal operator of numerous other affordable housing and senior living properties across the Hudson Valley, including the Huguenot Houses in New Rochelle and Franklin Windsor Senior Housing in White Plains.
Conroy has also been tied to other Lower Hudson Valley affordable housing providers, including Westchester-based Westhab Inc., Peekskill Interfaith Housing Corporation and Hudson Valley Building Maintenance Corporation.
The lawsuit states that Nyack Plaza and the Community Housing Management Corp. were made aware of the faulty exhaust fan, as well as other issues in Building C of the apartment complex including faulty electrical wiring and unsafe appliances.
The owners also allegedly “ignored ongoing and repeated requests from residents, tenants, occupants and guests to repair, fix, replace and remove electrical deficiencies and issues involving unsafe appliances, combustible materials and other fire hazards within the premises.”
94-year-old Flora Harris told the Journal News in June that she had repeatedly contacted the maintenance office at the affordable housing complex for issues of mold and mouse infestations in her apartment for several months. At the time of the fire, the issues had not been fixed.
“I called four times and the woman at the front desk promised she’d call me back. Never called,” Harris said. Her granddaughter Keisha said the building’s solution to the mouse problem was to place traps, not patch up holes.
Now, Harris has been able to move in to another apartment in the Plaza that was unaffected by the fire, but Keisha says that apartment too has significant issues— making it nearly inhabitable.
“There were no handles on the closet doors, there were still holes in the walls and the floors.” Harris said about the condition of her grandmother’s new apartment. “Now that the fire happened, the woman in charge of maintenance is filing work orders but it shouldn’t have had to take this situation to get things fixed.”
Other tenants verified claims of negligence when asked about Nyack Plaza’s history of response times.
The lawsuit also alleges that the owners and operators of the property “failed to install, maintain and provide functioning smoke detectors, fire alarms, sprinklers, fire extinguishers and other fire safety and fire suppression systems,” including defective fireproof walls between units.
“Many residents have been harmed and have no alternative other than to hold the owners and operators of Nyack Plaza are legally responsible,” said Fellows in a press release Wednesday. “They have not appreciated the harm that has been inflicted on dispossessed tenants who continue to suffer the effects of a fire that arose from failure to properly manage and maintain Nyack Plaza.”
Fellows said the tenants and attorneys representing them have still not yet heard from Nyack Plaza or the Community Housing Management Corporation about when or if their homes would be restored, and when they would be able to collect their possessions.
When contacted by The Journal News/lohud.com, the Community Housing Management Corporation declined to provide a comment.
“I feel somewhat relieved, now that something is being done” said Crowder. “My children are safe and my cat is safe. That’s all that matters.”
The defendants have until Oct. 25 to respond to the summons before Fellows Hymowitz Rice PLLC says further action will be taken.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Displaced Nyack Plaza residents sue landlord after June fire: ‘They haven’t stepped up’
Reporting by Alexandra Rivera, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
