NYC NOW - October 6, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is on a trip to Latin America sharing his concerns about the city welcoming too many migrants. Plus, WNYC’s David Brand and Karen Yi report on evictions at Tysens Park Apartments on Staten Island. And finally, WNYC’s Arya Sundaram visits Chinatown’s East Broadway Mall where merchants hope to survive the mall’s rebirth.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. The course of this trip, I'm paying my own way, and you know my rule, my dime, my time, don't whine. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is on a trip to Latin America. This weekend, he'll cover Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, and he's taking his message about migrants in New York City with him. At an early stop in Mexico City, the mayor said his concerns about the five boroughs welcoming two many migrants must go international. The message of this

not being sustainable cannot stay within the boundaries of New York City. And we must make sure that we look at the long-term impact of this global migration. More than 63,000

asylum seekers are currently staying in city shelters. Almost double that number of migrants have arrived in New York City since last year. Stay close. We'll head to Staten Island after the break. Evictions are rising all across New York City since the moratorium on lockdowns ended last January.

But on Staten Island, a single housing complex is driving one of the highest rates of eviction in the five boroughs. WMYC's David Brand and Karen Yee report on Tyson's Park Apartments, where the landlord has tried to evict nearly one in five tenants. Ricky Richardson has lived most of his life on San Island. He works as a limo driver, shuttling doctors, tourists, and once, let him. Bernard Bernstein's son across New York City. I'm hunting. Can you iron-drive my shirt so I can change that?

I got to get out of it. But when the city ground to a halt during the pandemic, so did Richardson's work. He got sick with COVID and struggled to pay $1,900 a month in rent. Last year, he got a city housing voucher to help him afford his apartment at Tyson's Park, one of the biggest complexes on San Island. But when the city missed three checks, he got an eviction notice. I just kept letting them know, listen, you know, it's not my fault. you know, it's going to come, you know, I just don't know when.

Richardson is one of at least 23 tenants across Tyson's Park at risk of losing their home because the city isn't paying its portion of the rent. And about 170 tenants received eviction notices from the property manager since the start of last year. Since the state's eviction moratorium ended last January, rents and homelessness have reached record highs. WNYC has been tracking evictions across the five boroughs and finds Tyson's isn't alone, Across the city, landlords trying to collect their debts have carried out more than 10,000 evictions over the past two years.

You would think that this is about 100 grand or something. What's wrong with these people? Tenant advocates say the small amounts of unpaid rent and quick-to-evict strategy stand out. WNYC found Tyson's property manager, Ravona, is taking tenants to court over a median of $4,700. Legal aid housing attorney Andrew Sye says he's seen Ravona try to evict tenants. over a month of back rent, or because the city isn't paying landlords on time. That sort of created a perfect storm to have them have the most evictions. The city's Department of Social Services, which administers the voucher program,

says it intervenes with financial assistance when a client is facing eviction. This week, the city council passed the bill requiring the agency to report on voucher payment delays. Councilmember Diana Ayala chairs the General Welfare Committee and says the agency is supposed to keep people from becoming homeless and shouldn't be contributing to the problem. Landlords are not getting paid. Inside Staten Island's housing court, a judge cycles through 55 landlord-tenant cases in one day.

On the docket is another Tyson's resident facing eviction. A Rivona attorney at Housing Court Tuesday didn't want to talk about the case. A spokesperson for Rivona said in a statement, they treat eviction as a last resort after trying to resolve payment issues with the tenant. You're relying on a system to pay your rent. So is it fair?

Jay Duskin doesn't represent Tyson's, but as an attorney for smaller landlords on Staten Island, he says he understands why property owners might be quick to file for eviction. The bottom line is if they know that the rent is not going to get paid for months, right, there's a situation that needs remedying, right? They're probably being prophylactic. But Cy from Legal Aid says leveraging the court system to collect a small amount of money gambles with people's homes. If a tenant misses a court date, a judge can order them evicted.

Basically, the landlord has already won. They are very behind the eight ball. Housing advocates and attorneys say there has to be a better system to make sure landlords get paid without clogging up the courts and leaving tenants at risk of homelessness. That's WMYC's David Brand and Karen Yee.

Now to Manhattan, where a struggling Chinatown Mall and once bustling community hub is close to getting a $5 million renovation, and a new landlord. But some longtime shop owners are wondering if they'll be edged out. WNYC's Aria Sundaram has the story.

On the eastern corridor of Chinatown, under the Manhattan Bridge is the East Broadway Mall. It's called Yidong Lu in Chinese. Nowadays, the front entrance is covered in graffiti tags. The bathroom plumbing gets backed up all the time. Water leaks from gaping holes in the ceiling. The escalator going upstairs doesn't work anymore. The few remaining shops are surrounded by row after row of vacant storefronts. One of the only spots that does see regular lines of people

is the office for the Chinatown East Neighborhood Council. People come to sign up for insurance and IDs. Justin U.S. The more is not function. The businesses, like many others in Chinatown, have been hard hit by the pandemic, and even earlier by Hurricane Sandy in 9-11. The city owns the property,

and it says the current landlord stopped paying rent as early as 2014. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2019, and now owes the city at least over $9 million. If this more start functioning, it will be like a locomotive to take the whole East Broadway back to Houston. We want to see that happen. In the mall's heyday, people would fulfill the barber shops, gift shops, and jewelry stores. Crowds spilled out onto the streets.

Fuginese shop owners and mallgoers say it was especially important to their community, since they felt excluded from other Chinatown spots. Local council member Christopher Marte says its place in the community is too important to lose. For decades, it's really been the center of the Fuginese community down in Chinatown. Mayor Adams approved a lease lad. week with a new developer that would call for an extensive redesign and repairs in the coming months. A new 800-seat banquet hall is planned for upstairs. It would be one of the only unionized restaurants in the neighborhood, and the largest, too.

This can be a new chapter of Chinatown. Many of the tenants welcome the new fixes. Some of the shopkeepers say the current landlord cut them a break when the pandemic hit, and they're paying just a few hundred dollars a month. But with the new deal, their only guarantee. to stay at their current rent for two years. Afterword is a question mark. The head of the Merchants Association at the mall,

Stephen Wu, says they're afraid of losing their businesses. Angela Lee used to come to the mall as a kid, and she's now working on oral history of the space. She has questions, too. Who is it for? Is it for the Fugeneas community, or is it for more tourists to come and visit? Kevin Fang runs an antique shop.

He says the renovations will be better for Chinatown in the long run. To the city to say it's good. To show you like. Because we can't say they've got us out. It's not. So, it's even if he and other shop owners have to leave. Neither the current manager, Terry Chan, nor the future landlord Bill Lamb, responded to requests for coming.

But councilmember Marte says he's pushing to change the lease terms to five years, and he's optimistic that'll happen. That's WNYC's ARIA syndrome. Before we go, a quick note, we'll be back with another weekend special Saturday morning. It's WNYC's new five-part investigative podcast series, Eminent Danger, one doctor and a trail of injured women. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WMYC.

Catch us every weekday three times a day. And for the next five weeks, Saturday, too. I'm Junae Pierre.