Fed-up Brooklyn tenants go on rent strike

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (PIX11) --- A group of Brooklyn residents, fed up over their landlord never making much-needed repairs, is going on a rent strike, they told PIX11 News on Sudnay.

When it rains outside Richard Felix’s fourth floor apartment at 1074 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, he says it also rains inside his rent-stabilized one bedroom. Felix showed PIX11 News video he took of the last big rainfall. He says it came down in buckets throughout his apartment, and then trickled down all the way to the first floor apartments.

“This is just a Band-Aid. When it rains, it still bubbles up there,” Felix said as he pointed to repair work.

He says he has complained repeatedly to management. Felix said the only time they make repairs is when he withholds his $1,150 a month rent.

“I can’t take them to court, but when they take me to court, I get an abatement and they make repairs,” Felix told PIX11 News. 

Felix joined dozens of his neighbors  in announcing a rent strike. They say there are several open violations on their building. 

Tenant organizers say that because of the death of their landlord in 2021,  the building’s management, along with two others in the neighborhood, has been mired in lawsuits. 

“Because of that, nothing gets done,” Charlie Dulik, a tenant organizer, told PIX11 News. 

Corrine Foxe is also joining this rent strike. She lives in a second-floor apartment with her 64-year-old mother and two children and she has been asking for repairs to be made for years with no progress. 

“The toilet leaks and these little water bugs come out and that’s an issue,” Foxe, another longtime tenant, told PIX11 News. 

Iris Holding Group spokesman George Nunez told PIX11: “It’s been frustrating. We are the management company, not the owner. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars on repairs, but we often have difficulty gaining access to some apartments.”