Tenants Rally Outside Court For Brooklyn Woman Forced Into Shelter Because Of Illegal Construction
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A rally was held Tuesday in support of tenants at a Brooklyn building – one in particular who has been forced to live in a shelter due to illegal construction by the landlord.
As WCBS 880's John Metaxas reported, some 50 protesters gathered in front of Brooklyn Housing Court in support of Najary Torres and her family.
The Mexican immigrant told a tale of bewildering governmental apathy. She has been forced to live in a city shelter with her husband and three young daughters for the last two and a half years, after the city forced her out of her apartment in the building at 94 Franklin Ave. in North Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The vacate order came after her landlord built an illegal synagogue in the backyard , blocking access and creating an unsafe condition.
"Where a landlord like this one just wants to drag its feet and make it take forever in the hopes that tenants are going to abandon their claim to return home, he can, and the city won't do much to him about it," said Torres' lawyer, Adam Meyers.
Meyers, of Brooklyn Legal Services, was in court Tuesday to demand the city appoint an administrator to get Torres and her family back home.