Nation: “Lead Poisoning, a Stubborn Nemesis,”by Mireya Navarro, The New York Times, April 21, 2010
Nothing prepared Veronica Rodriguez for the call she got from a New York City health official last October.
A blood sample taken from her 2 1/2-year-old son, Carlos Espinoza, had revealed more than double the level of lead that the federal government considers cause for concern about poisoning.
“I was horrified,” said Ms. Rodriguez, 26, who lives on Staten Island and vaguely recalls having heard routine prevention messages about the dangers of lead in the home. “I thought, oh my God, my boy is very sick.”
New York: “Tenants in ‘Worst Landlords’ Bronx Buildings Take Wall Street — Not Their Landlord — to Court,” by Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Village Voice, April 21, 2010
On the heels of the Voice‘s “10 Worst Landlords” series, tenants in 10 foreclosed buildings in the Bronx run into the ground by dishonoree Milbank Real Estate are going to court with a new strategy that directly targets Wall Street.
Backed up by local pols, they’re asking a judge today to force mortgage-holder Wells Fargo itself to take direct responsibility for, and shell out millions to fix, nearly 4,500 housing code violations.
The buildings are in foreclosure proceedings in Bronx Supreme Court after Milbank, run by L.A. brothers Aaron and Solyman Yashouafar, defaulted early last year on a $35 million mortgage. A court-appointed receiver is operating the buildings. But they have slid further into decay, say sources close to the situation, because Wells Fargo isn’t forking up the cash to maintain them even at their previously poor level.
California: “CalPERS Bans Real Estate Investments that Displace Tenants,” by Dean Preston, BeyondChron, April 20, 2010
Yesterday, California Public Employee Retirement Service (CalPERS), the nation’s largest pension fund, adopted a policy to ban investments in real estate deals that are premised on displacing tenants. According to the new policy, “CalPERS will not participate in private real estate investment strategies that rely on or result in eliminating rent-regulated housing units, converting such units to market rate units, or raising rents above regulated levels as determined by the appropriate governing authority.” The CalPERS’ board overwhelmingly approved the policy, with only one board member voting in opposition.
New York: “Bid to Make Banks Fix Crumbling Bronx Properties,” by Sam Dolnick, The New York Times, April 20, 2010
The hot water was out again on Tuesday, so Maria Paulino, a woman of 103 years, had to bathe with a pan of water heated on the stove.
Upstairs, Frank Jenkins stepped over a pile of debris in his kitchen to check on the gaping hole in his ceiling. In the hallway, a shattered window refracted light across graffiti that cursed the management.
This building in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, along with nine others owned by Milbank Real Estate, went into foreclosure last year when Milbank defaulted on its $35 million mortgage, which the rents could never support. Since then, the tenants have been left to watch conditions deteriorate — there are now more than 900 open violations on Ms. Paulino’s Heath Avenue building alone — as their homes wind through the foreclosure process.
Nation: “U.S. Offers a Hand to Those on Eviction’s Edge,” by Peter S. Goodman, The New York Times, April 19, 2010
Two years into a merciless downward spiral, Antonio Moore was threatened with living on the street.
He had lost his $75,000-a-year job as a mortgage consultant, his three-bedroom house with a Jacuzzi, his Lexus sedan. He could no longer pay even the rent on his cramped studio apartment — not on his $10-an-hour part-time job as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant.
Faced with eviction, he was staring last month at the imminent prospect of joining the teeming ranks of the homeless. His last hope was a new $1.5 billion federal program aimed at preventing that fate.
