Vantage Properties Remove Supers
There are many Vantage Properties in Sunnyside and Woodside. For the most part, the company has taken poorly-maintained buildings and upgraded them. In doing so, the neighborhood looks the better for it. However, many Vantage tenants claim the refurbishments are a mechanism to lift rents and kick them out.
There’s pros and cons to the Vantage story. Anyway this story reported by the Daily News shows one of the cons.
Tenants’ super problem: Say city waiver led to neglect
BY John Lauinger
Tuesday, May 19th 2009, 4:00 AM
Frustrated tenants of an East Elmhurst apartment building had planned a rent strike recently because they were fed up with not having a superintendent to make needed repairs.
The residents of 43-43 91st Place had notified the city in September of their plight. Since the landlord still had not hired a super six months later, a housing attorney told them state law barred the landlord from collecting rent.
But there was one problem. Shortly before the strike, tenants learned from the landlord, Vantage Properties, that the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development had quietly issued waivers in December allowing a 24-hour hotline to replace supers in 14 Queens buildings owned by the company.
Now, a local elected official is demanding the city rescind the waivers.
“It is a financial windfall,” said Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, who met with housing officials May 8. The waivers could translate into hundreds of thousands of extra dollars each year for Vantage, she said.
Tenants and advocates are furious. They say the waivers help Vantage pad its coffers at the expense of tenants, many of whom are working-class immigrants.
Vantage, which is backed by private equity, owns some 5,000 rent-stabilized units across Queens. It has been dogged by complaints that it harasses tenants so it can vacate units and rent them at market rate. The company has denied the charges.
Teresa Perez, president of the Queens Vantage Tenants Council, said the waivers allow the company to pocket the salaries it would have to pay the supers, plus it can rent 14 more apartments at market rate.
“It’s a perfect way for them to save money,” said Perez, claiming the repair hotline makes residents wait too long.
Vantage spokeswoman Shannon Vander Hook declined comment on the issue when contacted last week.
Housing Preservation and Development spokesman Seth Donlin said there are no plans to yank the waivers, though they could be if the hotline and maintenance are not effective.
“We haven’t found at this point that the maintenance of these buildings is suffering,” Donlin said of Vantage’s properties.
But city records show the East Elmhurst building had 61 open housing violations as of last week. Tenants complained of numerous problems, including piles of garbage behind the building.
“We need a super,” said tenant Junior Luna, 28. He said he called the hotline at least three times since December to get Vantage to fix his clogged shower drain, cracked bedroom window and living room window, which leads to the fire escape but doesn’t lock.
“They said they were going to come to my apartment, and they never did,” he said.
