Kevin Gavin, 66, faces three murde To appeal an order from the Appellate Term. Turning to the lawyer, he said, “If I could, I would sentence you to live in this apartment.”. The landlord had rented out the couch. About 55 tenants a day came calling. Mike Pence fights back tears, thanks Trump in farewell speech, Joe Biden's daughter Ashley turns heads in tuxedo on inauguration night, Twitter sued for allegedly refusing to remove child porn, 'Gimme a break, man! EMAIL. I’m not a Gypsy. His biography of a dwindling life includes the facts that he was a mechanic and worked in housekeeping at a nursing home in California, became H.I.V. “In certain cases, yes,” he said. Legal Aid keeps an office at the court, where a paralegal hears tenants seeking free representation. A lot of people are counting on miracles.”, He knows the court befuddles tenants: “I’ve often had this discussion with tenants: ‘How much rent do you owe?’ They say four months. When they complained, the landlord slapped an eviction notice on their door, ordering them out in three days. SHARE. Like many housing court proceedings, these didn’t follow a straight line, but zigged and zagged and retreated back to where they had begun. But there are outliers. He arranged to work as the maintenance man in a building in East Flatbush in exchange for a dank basement apartment. “Said I couldn’t win. “I have no jurisdiction over people who come into your apartment in their underwear.”. TWEET . The judge approved it. They were coming under the door, ‘Hey, what’s up, what’s for dinner?’ I found a dead mouse in my bed.”. He lived with his girlfriend, two dogs and two cats. “Unless my administrative judge tells me the elevators aren’t working, which happens fairly frequently, then this may delay defaults,” she said. Mark H. Cohen & Associates PC methods offer an environment that is more convenient and comfortable than the … She avoided the bathroom sink. In the end, housing court disappoints pretty much everyone, because its resources are inadequate and the core problem it finds is beyond the power of 141 Livingston Street. “It’s not worth the trouble,” she said. She said she had one primary patient, and whenever that person entered the hospital — which had been happening recently — she didn’t have work. The judge declared the living conditions there dangerous and found Mr. Shahid guilty of harassment. They inquire about one another’s children, like old friends catching up. Experienced in these proceedings, he would lose one case and begin a new one. He had no lease and no standing. In a corner courtroom, Judge Jeannine Baer Kuzniewski shushed the room and addressed the tenants who filled the pews, saying that they had to check in by 10:30 a.m. or risk being defaulted. “Get an Albany vibe.”, “My best to you in the Snow Belt,” the judge said. I’m the sort of person who, when they see something wrong, just gets stuck on it.”, Ms. Klenfner said: “I feel it’s sort of like Frodo and ‘Lord of the Rings.’ I feel we can do this.”. In January 2018, the fire at the building at 529 56th Street resulted in eight families living there having to find temporary housing; … Charles Wasserman, second from right, is a regular in housing court, mainly representing landlords. Protesters decry looming eviction proceedings at Brooklyn housing court, Aug. 6, 2020. They say they would like to have half as many, a third as many, to be able to consider them more thoughtfully. Slept. Outside, shuddering in the cold, they waited. I’m a broken homeboy.”. What’s the problem now? She dwelled on that commonality. A Brooklyn man was charged Thursday with killing three elderly women at their senior housing facility after he had befriended them by running … Apply to Senior Case Manager, Housing Specialist, Receptionist and more! The woman living in one of his units had died and her daughter wished to establish tenancy. I say, ‘How much is that?’ And they can’t do it. Court-goers wait for their numbers to be called. They knocked on Mr. Caple’s apartment and asked to look around. She was being evicted from an apartment in East Flatbush. Get directions, reviews and information for Brooklyn Neighborhood Housing Court Project in Brooklyn, NY. You’re to move your stuff by June 14. When you report here, it does not mean you will have your trial. Yet while housing court is increasingly used as a tool to wrest apartments from the shackles of regulation, it is a lot more complicated than that. She said: “Should I presume when your children were young you did everything for them? “I’m from Bangladesh,” he said. Now a peculiar one. It doesn’t create jobs. He hears voices. I’m not the Sanitation Department. Photos: Rob Abruzzese/Brooklyn Eagle . The lawyers gather details and then, on Thursday afternoons, assemble to chew over the tenants’ circumstances and determine whether to accept their cases. 56,228, This story has been shared 53,928 times. No privacy. “Two pairs.”, “I’m ashamed,” he said. He stared with flat affect. Once an agreement is reached, the distilled terms — 30 days to pay $2,304.83, or 45 days to pay $1,922.16, or 15 days to get out — are normally handwritten by the landlord’s lawyer on a sheet known as a stipulation, or stip. At 3:30 the case was finally called. A relative’s death. That’s 15 years. Sitemap One tenants’ rights advocate acknowledged that she knew people who, upon receiving a one-shot, ceased paying rent. The experience of James Caple speaks for many. In succeeding weeks, time slipping away, he retreated to Baltimore, to temporarily occupy his old house that his wife was selling. Housing Court Records and Your Credit Report By the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. He didn’t understand, thinking he was simply accused of being a nuisance. “These acts are not activism or advocacy and do not further the cause that they purport to represent.”. Brooklyn Housing Court Bar Association wants more tenants’ attorneys to join. Additional reporting by Khristina Narizhnaya. For all they knew, she thought such were the eccentricities of New York life. But it ends here, the last stop on the road to eviction. Judges routinely face 40, 50, 60 cases a day. He had been trying to find a place, scouring ads on the computer at the library. He received a new check that did clear: $2,500. “Baltimore is a nice place,” she said. She would take $1,000. In a single wondrous act, a one-shot vanishes that $2,351 in debt, that $6,802, that $4,013. The court is due to move to more appropriate accommodations in the municipal building, but it never seems to happen. Then the judge addressed a 74-year-old man about to be evicted, with nothing left to avert that end. It’s hard to think clearly when you can’t even sit down. “You know how I live?” she said. “Really? I’m not going to go live on the street. Mr. Caple’s apartment still needed repairs. There’s inadequate space. Find 152 listings related to Housing Court in Brooklyn on YP.com. ‘This person has a mortgage to pay, and you have rent to pay.’”, It frustrates her to see so many tenants who don’t budget well, “so few people who have a Plan B.”, And she has presided over many actions by landlords that infuriated her. Top Ten Mistakes Tenants Make in Housing Court By South Brooklyn Legal Services. Outside the one-shot room on the fourth floor, people piled up. His marriage had ended. The landlord said she hadn’t prepared appropriately. They were subsumed into it four years ago and couldn’t escape. The landlord lawyer said: “This is just a shakedown. The lawyer continued to dispute the claim. Lawyers and even judges dart into the one-shot room to check on applications. When he returned, the locks had been changed. On good days, he hunted for discarded cans to redeem, to help cover the expenses of his pets. Do one-shots permanently solve these crises? The Civil Court of the City of New York is a civil court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that decides lawsuits involving claims for damages up to $25,000 and includes a small claims part (small claims court) for cases involving amounts up to $5,000 as well as a housing part (housing court) for landlord-tenant matters, and also handles other civil matters referred by the New York … See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for Housing Court locations in Brooklyn, NY. If you’re going to be a landlord and you think you’ll never have a tenant who doesn’t pay the rent, you’re naïve.”, Judges recognize that there are bad landlords and bad tenants, but many cases boil down to bad economics. When you first come to Part Ex, you receive a number. New York City Housing Court Resolution Part A Resolution Part is a courtroom where the landlord and tenant can discuss their differences before a Judge or Court Attorney to see if an agreement can be reached to settle the dispute. The lawyer calls me a Gypsy. The judge had signed 13 extensions and now was signing a 14th. “They want to evict over $10?” she said. Some of this day’s cases were straightforward: A woman with developmental disabilities was behind on her rent, which equaled half her monthly income. 6. He said he needed to get to church. Four roommates shared an apartment. At 9:30 a.m., Judge Marc Finkelstein prepared for … “I’ve seen one-shots for $200 or $300,” said Mayra Infante, a former supervisor for the Brooklyn unit. 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