Tenants at a Crown Heights apartment building say broken elevators, inaccessible stairways and months without cooking gas have made daily life nearly impossible, and several of them are now taking their landlord to court. Residents of the building at 1933 Union Street describe a long list of failures that they say have gone unaddressed for far too long, turning their own homes into a daily struggle.
For Teresa Ballinger, the simple act of getting home has become an ordeal. The elevator on her side of the building is out of service again, leaving her to carry her groceries up five flights of stairs. She is one of many residents who say the unreliable elevators have stripped away a basic part of everyday life and made the building exhausting to live in.
The problems do not end at the stairwell. Residents say the gas has been out in the building since October, forcing some of them to prepare their meals on a hot plate. For tenants who are used to baking or cooking on a stove, the loss of gas for months has been a constant frustration, leaving them without a reliable way to cook in their own apartments.
Now some of the tenants are fighting back through the courts. They are suing the landlord, Claudette Henry, and the building's management company, which did not respond to a request for comment. The landlord ranks number eight on the city's list of its ten worst landlords, a designation that residents say closely matches what they have experienced inside the building.
Charlene McDuffie is one of several residents who have filed a federal lawsuit over the conditions. She described the toll the situation has taken on her, saying she has severe arthritis and recently underwent back surgery, and that the daily difficulties of life in the building have left her feeling overwhelmed.
Residents say disabled tenants have been left to struggle the most. They point to the unreliable elevators and to a wheelchair lift that they say has not worked in nearly two years, leaving people with mobility needs without a dependable way to move through the building and reach their own front doors.
The legal effort is moving on more than one front. The Legal Aid Society says it has also filed a case in Brooklyn Housing Court, adding to the pressure on the landlord and the management company as tenants press for repairs and seek to hold those responsible for the building to account.