{"id":298430,"date":"2026-07-17T04:55:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298430\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T04:55:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:55:54","slug":"brooklyn-heights-tenants-decry-rats-mites-mold-at-riverside-apts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298430\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Heights tenants decry rats, mites, mold at Riverside Apts."},"content":{"rendered":"

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS \u2014 Tenants at the historic Riverside Apartments in Brooklyn Heights say they have endured rats, a mite infestation, mold, leaking ceilings, heat failures, water shutoffs and other unsafe living conditions for years.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, they joined elected officials and housing advocates at a rally to protest what they say are deplorable conditions caused by years of neglect by notorious landlord<\/a> Pinnacle Group, and to oppose a steep rent increase affecting 20 tenants.<\/p>\n

\"TenantsTenants display posters showing some of the conditions at the Riverside Houses, including a radiator falling through the floor, mite bites and dangerous stairs. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve endured leaks so bad that I\u2019ve had to stay up all night during storms to empty buckets of water,\u201d said Jean Campbell, a resident of Riverside since 1973.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve had collapsing ceilings, rodent infestations, and now mites from the vermin. We\u2019re not asking for anything extraordinary; we\u2019re asking for a safe home and a landlord who fulfills their responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say I\u2019m having a mice problem \u2014 it\u2019s so bad that my daughter started naming them, \u2018Well, that\u2019s Josh over there,\u2019\u201d said tenant Farhia Hagi, whose daughter is 14. \u201cWhen I complained about the mice, I was told to get a cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn exterior ceiling leaks when it rains, and gets more damaged over time. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Hagi pointed to a photo showing a jar filled with orange-brown water, saying that\u2019s what comes out of her pipes. \u201cWe are humans \u2014 tenants, mothers, daughters, grandmothers \u2014 who deserve water that\u2019s not brown and stairs that are safe to climb,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Some older tenants have already given up their rent-stabilized apartments because they could no longer take the mites, said Hew Evans, who moved in just two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"TheOne family repaired a hole under the sink, where rats were coming in, by themselves. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s mites, and I continue to emphasize this. M-I-T-E S. As small as a pepper flake, these mites are tiny, blood sucking parasites,\u201d he said. The bites leave an itchy red rash that \u201cfurther develop into incredibly painful, pus filled rashes,\u201d he said. Thousands of mites will infest any fabric surface, clothes, furniture, bedding and toys, and they can only be removed by professional extermination, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Evans said he has spent more than $1,000 so far on hotel stays, laundry and medical care, due to the mites. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve spent over two months in itchy burning pain from these mites and the resulting rashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AmandaAmanda Trees, who was born at Riverside Houses, said she gives her dog medicine so he doesn\u2019t get ticks or mites. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Tenants say Pinnacle Group, with thousands of housing violations at buildings across the city and in the middle of bankruptcy<\/a> proceedings, is trying to pressure the long-term rent-stabilized tenants out of their homes pending a preliminary offering plan for condominium conversion.<\/p>\n

On top of that, 20 families are fighting eviction in housing court after the Division of Housing and Community Renewal overturned a rent freeze, which is allowing Pinnacle Group to claim rental arrears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, the Riverside Tenants Association won a lawsuit against the landlord after the central courtyard was illegally paved as a parking lot, securing a rent freeze for tenants. These 20 families are now fighting eviction in housing court after the DHCR overturned the rent freeze.<\/p>\n

The RTA\u2019s attorney is filing a lawsuit in state court to challenge the DHCR rent restoration, which has placed the building\u2019s rent stabilization status at risk.<\/p>\n

Landmarked and historically affordable<\/p>\n

The five Riverside buildings are made up of 156 rent-stabilized apartments at 10, 20, and 30 Columbia Place and 24<\/a>and 32 Joralemon St.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The apartments were built in 1890 by philanthropist Alfred Treadway White<\/a>, who believed that the working poor deserve a healthy standard of living, with light, fresh air and a courtyard with trees. Designed by William Field & Son architects, Riverside is considered one of the earliest examples of multi-family affordable housing in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cdisgusting\u201d what Pinnacle has allowed to happen to the architecturally notable brick buildings with exterior stairwells, said elected officials who represent the area.<\/p>\n

\"AssemblymemberAssemblymember Jo Anne Simon stands with young tenants of the Riverside Houses. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cThese repairs have been neglected for years and years and years,\u201d said Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon. She read from a letter her predecessor Joan Millman sent to DHCR in 2007, asking the agency to address \u201cthe very neglected state of disrepair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is somebody who categorically has waged war on their tenants for decades,\u201d Simon said. \u201cAnd now they\u2019re trying to convert to condominiums, and making believe they can just do that. You know, we have rent stabilization laws. They cannot just beat everybody out because they want to make condos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simon said it was a \u201cwell-known pattern\u201d among landlords who do \u201cthis sort of thing, that is, to harass people, to fail to repair, to make people want to move out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CouncilmemberCouncilmember Lincoln Restler said Pinnacle Group\u2019s CEO Joel Weiner \u201cshould be ashamed of himself.\u201d Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Councilmember Lincoln Restler called out Pinnacle Group\u2019s CEO by name. \u201cThe conditions here are despicable, and Joel Weiner should be ashamed of himself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Restler said his office is working closely with the city\u2019s Housing Agency and the Mayor\u2019s Office to ensure that there are more consistent inspections, \u201cAnd that Joel Wiener gets every damn violation thrown at him, that the book is thrown at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Restler said his office would also work with the state\u2019s Homes and Community Renewal agency, which \u201csomehow allowed for this egregious rent increase to happen for two dozen tenants. We are going to fight back and make sure that it is overturned.<\/p>\n

\"AA full power strip sits on top of a radiator that emits hot steam in the winter. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Joel Wiener is doing is disgraceful,\u201d Restler added. \u201cIt is why on Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first day in office, he went to a Pinnacle building and said, \u2018What this man is doing cannot go on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiener was forced to sell two-thirds of his buildings he owned across the city \u2014 93 out of 146 buildings, Restler said.<\/p>\n

Kathleen, secretary of the Riverside Tenants Association who did not want her last name published, said there were 168 open violations at Riverside. The groups\u2019 attorney confirmed Tuesday that the courts must now decide two things, she said. First, whether DHCR was correct to approve a rent increase at all. \u201cAnd second, if the increase is not overturned, whether conditions in the building warrant rent abatements for tenants instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are calling on (the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation and Development), HCR, and every relevant agency to come to the table, enforce the law, and protect one of Brooklyn Heights\u2019 last significant rent-stabilized communities,\u201d said John Leyva of the Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN HEIGHTS \u2014 Tenants at the historic Riverside Apartments in Brooklyn Heights say they have endured rats, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,6748,99,2907,5322,3075,9,24,5325,63,4521],"class_list":["post-298430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-heights","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-housing","tag-jo-anne-simon","tag-lincoln-restler","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-no-paywall","tag-nyc","tag-pinnacle-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}