Steven Kessner News

Steven Kessner News

Steven Kessner News

MINOR VIOLATIONS IN BUILDINGS OWNED BY STEVEN KESSNER

There have been a number of articles and news clips recently about Steven Kessner and his R. E. Group. Some have been fair and balanced but many are driven by the media ties to politicians and non profit groups supporting the undocumented immigrant population. They are trying to paint Kessner as anti Hispanic but nothing could be further from the truth. The smoke screen that they constantly throw up are the numbers of violations in Kessner buildings. Steven Kessner employs over 55 people in his organization and the majority of them are Hispanic, from the Neighborhood. These are the people entrusted with the day to day operations of Kessner’s company and they are the ones directly responsible for abating the violations in the buildings. Steven Kessner sets the policy; maintain the safety and the quality of life in his buildings, complete and certify new violations before they are due and continually reduce the numbers of outstanding old violations. Its an open secret in the real estate industry that numbers of violations alone do not tell the real story about a building. So, lets take a look at the real story behind the violations in some of the Kessner buildings that have been attacked in the news media.

First, as a case in point, we would like to provide an in depth look at 291 Pleasant Avenue. This is a 16 unit building with 97 violations, or above 6 per unit. Ostensibly, this would be on HPD’s radar as a “building at risk.” However, a closer examination of the violation report reveals that 56 violations are in one apartment, including 37 duplicate violations. In other words, this tenant calls HPD over and over again about the same few things and then refuses access for the purpose of repairing them. 9 of the duplicate violations are for vermin and rodents. According to our exterminator’s records, the tenant has refused access every month. The purpose behind this tenant’s actions is to avoid paying any rent and she has not paid for several years. We also have a petition from every other tenant in the building and surrounding buildings, stating that this tenant is constantly harassing everyone else in the building and on the street. Aside from this one apartment, 8 of the violations are not due or are certified and awaiting dismissal. 18 violations are in two other apartments, of which 7 are no access for the purpose of dismissal. In terms of real violations in this building, there are about 20, all concentrated in one apartment, which we cannot access to abate them. A close examination of this building therefore reveals that, while it may appear to be violation ridden, the story is really about one tenant who is abusing the system to avoid paying rent.

One of the darlings in the news media is Steven Kessner’s building at 231 East 117th Street. This is because there are approximately 100 Hispanic people living in this building. What the media fails to disclose is that most of them are crammed into several illegally overcrowded apartments. This is not the fault of Steven Kessner; he originally rented each apartment to two people who sublet to up to fifteen other people in each apartment and then moved out themselves. One article showed a picture of a moldy bathroom ceiling in this building. Again, they fail to disclose that 20 people were probably living in the apartment, showering once or twice a day. Of course there is mold in the bathroom. It wasn’t meant to take that kind of abuse. So, lets look at the breakdown of violations outstanding in this building at the time the news article was written:

231 East 117th Street - 164 Violations; 4.7 per unit
76 violations were new and not due yet. Most, if not all were certified before they were due
101 violations are concentrated in three apartments
Of the 89 older violations, 60 have been taken care of, 30 are no access and 4 are tenant created.
This leaves 25 violations in the building; under 1 per unit.
The largest concentration of violations are in two overcrowded apartments

Fourteen people in this building formed into a tenant association. Seven of them are in court with pending non payment or holdover cases, three are not our tenants and a few just signed to be good neighbors. Five of these apartments are identified as dangerously overcrowded.

Every building that Steven Kessner owns was extremely distressed when he acquired it and he has poured his heart and soul into turning them around. It is painful to see people move in, occupy them illegally and destroy them. Kessner is also disturbed to be the subject of a media barrage because of those people, based on raw information gathered from the City. The vast majority of tenants in Kessner owned buildings live peaceably, in comfort and have no problems with him. Unfortunately, this is news that doesn’t sell and that is why the media does not provide the proper coverage.

For more information about Steven Kessner and his company look up his personal website www.StevenKessner.org or the company website www.RE-Management.com.

BETWEEN THE LINES IN THE VILLAGE VOICE
There are undoubtedly a large number of bad landlords in New York City. One would think that the Voice could find them and write about them instead of playing patty cake with non profit groups, rabble rousers and local politicians. Every year it comes out with its 10 WORST LANDLORDS, not to do a service to the public but to sell newspapers. The Village Voice is of course, known for its propensity toward attention grabbing headlines and lurid photographs and this article is no different. All one has to do to take its measure is to look at who advertises and pays their bills. Maybe what is needed is an article about the 10 WORST NEWSPAPERS in terms of how many X rated ads offering illegal services they have. Back to the issue at hand, we could perhaps all agree that HUD is the country’s number one worst landlord; that’s a given. However, without speaking for the rest, they really missed the mark by naming Steven Kessner. You can chalk it up to a reporter losing her objectivity and allowing herself to be led around by the nose by a tenant group with a hidden agenda.
Although the article pays lip service to Kessner’s claim that overcrowding apartments is the issue, it is glossed over and buried in the details, for instance, the photo in the article of mold on a tenants bathroom ceiling. What is not being said is that if 20 people live in an apartment with one bathroom, each showering once or twice a day, the ceiling never dries and mold grows. There is nothing that a landlord can do to prevent that except to try and reduce the occupancy load in the unit. Steven Kessner is trying to do that and has opened himself up as a target for the politically connected non profit groups that support the undocumented alien population in New York. Isn’t it strange that all of the articles written about Kessner cite the same couple of tenants? Although this article mentions that he has almost 60 buildings in East Harlem with over 1200 units, Kessner’s inclusion in the article is based on two tenants in two buildings. The Voice reporter makes sure to mention that Steven Kessner has over 3,000 HPD violations. Again, she fails to mention that these violations are spread over 60 buildings or that most of them have been abated but are not removed from record because the city inspectors can’t gain access to the apartments. Nor does she mention that a majority of the violations that are left are in overcrowded apartments. The article starts off by quoting Steven Kessner as saying “I fix it, they break it.” However, it fails to back up that quote with the evidence that was given to the reporter, instead, using alleged conditions in a couple of apartments to build a case for a two tier portfolio of trophy buildings and buildings dedicated to unfortunate immigrants. The conclusion of this article was written first and the rest was then filled in. Shame on the Village Voice. How about this for your next article....NIGHTMARE TENANTS that destroy apartments and then insist that the landlord has an obligation to repair them.

For more information on Steven Kessner, look up his website www.StevenKessner.org or his company website www.re-management.com

STEVEN KESSNER RESPONDS TO CHARGES OF GENTRIFICATION
To quote a recent article about Steven Kessner, “Gentrification is clearly the purpose and the immigrants living in Kessner’s buildings know it, but they are working to resist it.” The context is an article that accuses Steven Kessner and his R.E. Group of having a two-tier portfolio; beautiful buildings that house white, middle class tenants and violation ridden buildings that house immigrants. The article is quoting the purported leader of a tenant group. In actuality, Juan Haros is nothing more than a neighborhood strong man craving more attention than he gets from his herd of sheep. When he states that a hundred Kessner tenants are working with his movement which has led rent strikes and rallies against their landlord, he doesn’t add that these hundred tenants all live in about ten apartments in two or three buildings. What they are really doing is illegally and dangerously overcrowding their apartments, without the consent of the landlord. What they are really trying to accomplish is to prevent Steven Kessner from being able to evict them. This so called tenant group, The Movement For Justice in El Barrio, is nothing more than a large group of squatters who are being victimized by their own people. It was other immigrants, not Steven Kessner, who first rented their apartments and then sublet illegally to 15-20 other people in each apartment. Who is making the money here? Steven Kessner gets one rent for his apartment and that is usually below the current market. The person who sublet the apartment is getting more than a dozen rents and they are being aided and abetted by churches and other non profit groups who are blinded to the possibility that the culprit is anyone other than the landlord. This situation is further fueled by city officials, who fear the collective power of these disparate groups and have turned a blind eye to the plight of the masses of immigrants being herded into tiny apartments. After all, if HPD issues violations for overcrowding, resulting in evictions of large numbers of immigrants, they will have to assume the responsibility for housing them, and they do not have the resources to do that.
What led up to this and is it caused by gentrification? Is Steven Kessner just looking to make a quick buck from his buildings, get rich and then leave the neighborhood? Hardly! Kessner has been in East Harlem for over two and a half decades and he still owns three buildings on East 103rd Street that he acquired in 1983. Almost all of the Kessner buildings were acquired in the 1980s and 1990s and every one of them was highly distressed; some mostly or fully empty; some were in foreclosure or owned by banks and all were missing essential building systems and services. Is it gentrification to buy slums and turn them into quality housing? In the late 80s and early 90s, Steven Kessner almost went down with his buildings when the real estate market crashed. He was forced to retrench in East Harlem and most of Kessner’s buildings were turned against the tide. Not one dime came from the city and almost every building was acquired and renovated without bank loans. It was done the hard way, with private funding. Until a few years ago, the rents came from Section 8 and welfare or from immigrants without credit histories. That was just the way it was, there was no other market. Only after years of persevering and working the buildings did things begin to change as working people discovered East Harlem and began moving there. There is no two tier portfolio. Steven Kessner’s buildings are rent stabilized with a smattering of rent control tenants. They all have a mix of tenants from those paying under $200 a month to those paying current market rents. They also have a large number of immigrants, many undocumented and, for the most part, they pay their rent and live side by side with other tenants. There are about 50 apartments, in about six buildings that are packed with immigrants being victimized by their own people. These are the buildings being referred to as Kessner’s second tier and, yes, he would like to evict them and re-rent the apartments to individuals who will respect the buildings and their apartments by not overcrowding them. Is that gentrification? Steven Kessner is not forcing out any tenants that pay their rent and take care of their home. These six buildings probably had over 6,000 violations when Steven Kessner purchased them. Today they have under 600 and only about 15% are real violations, most of them concentrated in the overcrowded apartments. As Kessner puts it, “I fix it they break it, over and over again.” He would like to have buildings that are free of violations, perform routine maintenance in his buildings and collect rent from his tenants. 50 apartments stand in his way of that. Until they are emptied and re-rented, a handful of Kessner’s buildings will be distressed by overcrowding, the city will issue violations and newspapers will write articles about him. It sure seems like gentrification is the wrong terminology.
For more information on Steven Kessner and his company, look up his personal website www.StevenKessner.org or his company website www.RE-Management.com.