The last time Mandy Zhang was in the apartment she shared with her parents at 702 54th St. was May 2, 2022.

A fire broke out that morning on the ground floor of the building after e-bikes caught fire inside a business, according to an FDNY release at the time. The city later issued a vacate order for all 38 apartment units, deeming the building unsafe to occupy.

That vacate order remains in effect today.

What You Need To Know

A Sunset Park apartment building damaged by a fire more than four years ago still has not been repaired

Dozens of displaced tenants remain unable to return home as housing court proceedings drag on

A judge found the landlord in contempt in 2025, but no fines or damages have been issued yet

The fight to compel the landlord to make the repairs has been ongoing and no solution has been put forward

Zhang said the years following the fire were marked by instability, including multiple moves and about a year spent living in a homeless shelter. She said those experiences ultimately led her to join the Air Force.

“They promised me that I would never be homeless again,” she said, holding back tears. “I guess that’s what really hit me.”

Earlier this year, Zhang was packing boxes in the Maspeth apartment she shared with her parents before leaving for Ohio, where she is training for three years as a lab technician in the Air Force.

While Zhang said she now has more certainty about her future, many of her former neighbors remain displaced.

Laura Alegre, who lived at 702 54th St. for nearly 40 years, said she has spent the last four years living in a spare room in her niece’s apartment.

“I feel, very, very upset,” Alegre said.

For nearly the entirety of the four years tenants have been unable to return home, lawyers with the nonprofit TakeRoot Justice have fought in housing court to compel the building owner to make repairs and restore services.

“Tenant-Petitioners now seek this Court’s intervention to permit them to enter their apartments to gather and secure personal belongings; restore the displaced Petitioners to possession of their apartments, correct violations and hazardous conditions in the building; and fully restore electricity, gas service, heat, and water service supply, including hot water,” a complaint filed Aug. 4, 2022 stated.

It took nearly a year and a half before a housing court judge ruled the landlord needed to repair the building.

“The court concludes that, upon application of the law above to the facts elicit at trial and discussed below, landlord failed to put forth competent evidence of the cost of repairs to correct the DOB/HPD/ECB violations and lift the vacate orders,” Housing Court Judge Remy Smith wrote in January 2024.

Smith ordered the building owner, 702 Plaza LLC, to complete repairs by July 31, 2024.

The judge dismissed civil penalties against the landlord at the time, while preserving the possibility they could later be restored “in the event that the landlord defaults in a timely correcting the violations or in timely seeking an extension based on good faith.”

But the July 2024 deadline passed without repairs being completed.

NY1 visited the listed address for 702 Plaza LLC and repeatedly contacted the attorney representing the owners seeking an explanation for the delays. No response was provided. 

In October 2024, TakeRoot Justice attorneys informed the court the building still remained under a vacate order and tenants were still displaced.

A second housing court judge, Michael Weisberg, ruled in May 2025 that the building owners should be held in contempt.

“Respondent-Landlords have made vague reference to delays on the part of DOB but otherwise has failed to allege any facts regarding steps taken to comply with the court’s January 2024,” Weisberg wrote.

Weisberg found the landlord in contempt and said civil penalties should be recommended by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

According to city code, the recommended penalties tied to the 21 most severe violations connected to the fire would now total nearly $1.7 million. The amount increases by another $2,625 each day.

The trial to determine civil penalties has not yet taken place.

NY1 conducted a months-long investigation last fall into housing court cases involving fire-damaged apartments and found several instances in which landlords were not fined, or where fines amounted to only a fraction of the potential penalties.

So far, no fines or damages have been imposed against the landlord in the 702 54th St. case.

In July 2025, a third housing court judge, Enedina Pilar Sanchez, scheduled a January trial to determine damages owed to tenants and attorneys’ fees.

“I’m one person for the entire city of Brooklyn, county of Kings County to do this service,” Sanchez said.

“They’ve had three years of pressure on them,” said Michael Leonard, one of the attorneys representing the tenants.

“I hear your frustration. There’s nothing more I can do,” Sanchez responded. “That’s when you get your date.”

In December 2025, nearly a dozen tenants met with their attorneys to prepare for testimony.

“I know it’s scary to testify. I’ve testified,” said Michael Grinthal, a lawyer with TakeRoot Justice. “And even though I’m a lawyer, I had all butterflies in my stomach and was sure I was doing everything wrong. But we will work with you.”

Grinthal was referring to testifying in housing court, where tenants can sue to compel landlords to repair unsafe apartments.

“The court is saying, you know, wait your turn. You’ll have your day in court. But when that day is so far away, the landlord is playing a war of attrition, right,” Leonard said. “And winning. And our clients are losing hope. That’s the issue here.”

Some tenants, attorneys said, gave up during the four-year legal fight. Others expressed discomfort about testifying.

Despite now living in Ohio, Zhang returned to New York to testify against her former landlord because she said she wants her parents back in their rent-stabilized apartment.

“I felt like I had to fight for the bare minimum every single day just so we can get our rent-stabilized apartment back,” she testified in January.

Three additional hearings followed. Leonard said one lasted less than an hour because of court delays.

There is still no ruling from the housing court judge.

The pace of housing court proceedings became the subject of scrutiny during a City Council oversight hearing in October 2025.

“Cases are now taking longer than before to move through the court process,” said Council Member Gale Brewer, then chair of the committee.

Housing court staffing is largely allocated based on the volume of eviction proceedings, rather than tenant-initiated cases, according to Jack Stoller, supervising judge for New York City Housing Court.

“So if we have, you know, 5% of the cases are [tenant] cases, 5% of the judicial staff will do that,” Stoller said.

Shahabuddeen Ally, the administrative judge overseeing the city’s civil courts, said delays are under constant review.

“Trust me when I say we look at the operational side multiple times a week because before we get someone coming to us saying, ‘Why is there a delay?’” he said. “We ask ourselves, ‘Why is there a delay?’”

NY1 reached out to New York Courts seeking comment on why the case has taken so long. A spokesperson did not respond.

Court filings submitted by the landlord’s attorney said tenants had been offered other apartments “with the very same terms and conditions of occupancy” as their former units.

Leonard said his clients did not receive a list of available apartments until last year and believed the replacement units were too small.

Court records indicate repairs at 702 54th St. could be completed soon, though no timeline has been made clear.

For the tenants, the wait continues.