Cockroaches, rats, dirty water, mold, leaking holes ... and no money to pay rent amid the Covid crisis.
Brut met the Bronx residents at the center of a major rent strike. Here's what we saw.
Brut met the Bronx residents at the center of a major rent strike. Here's what we saw.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Look at the hole I have, look.
00:02How long has it been like this?
00:04It's been like this for over a year and a half.
00:06Look how they had to cover the toilet, look.
00:10And make a little wall because all the dirty water comes out in the toilet.
00:14He's calling me, he's sent me letters and sent me documents
00:18threatening that he's going to evict me.
00:20I have nowhere to go.
00:22For brew, I'm taking you to a building in the Bronx where a group of 40 tenants are on a rent strike.
00:33The pandemic has hit them hard because they've lost their jobs and can't pay their rent.
00:37The tenants here say that the landlord provides no services and that they themselves have to pay for their repairs.
00:43Please come in.
00:50Hello.
00:52My wife.
00:54Nice to meet you, Elisa.
00:56Look, these holes have been there for 8 years.
01:00There's hot water there.
01:02So that it doesn't get damaged, they made that hole in the middle, look.
01:08Look how I have it, look.
01:10Look how I have it so I can live a little, look.
01:13Look, look.
01:15It's not the first time I've thrown away garbage, look.
01:18Look how I have it, look.
01:20I've already thrown it out there.
01:23Look, this here, this bathroom, look how I have it.
01:27That dirty water comes down every day and we have to wash the bathtub.
01:30Look how that bathtub is.
01:32I painted it.
01:34Rats and cockroaches used to come in here and they wouldn't let me sleep.
01:37Look, look.
01:38They used to come in here?
01:39Yes, they used to come in here.
01:40I had to cover it with cement because they wouldn't let me sleep.
01:43Here we had to do the same.
01:47Here it's all covered, look.
01:49All the walls, because they came from below, like this, in the middle of the walls.
01:53The windows, look how I have them.
01:56Because they don't fix anything for me.
01:58They don't fix anything for me.
01:59Look at the paint I put on it so I can survive a little.
02:03Jimmy has been living here for 12 years and stopped paying rent in March
02:07because he lost his job as a mechanic.
02:09He lives with his wife and his son just came back
02:12and he's living in the living room because he lost his job as well.
02:15He's calling me and sending me letters and documents
02:21threatening to evict me.
02:27There's no work, miss.
02:29What I'm doing right now is collecting bottles to survive
02:33and I don't even have enough to eat.
02:36How are we going to pay the rent?
02:39A few months ago the landlord offered a rent reduction of 50%
02:43but it came with conditions like dropping a lawsuit over living conditions.
02:47The tenants say that ever since he's been trying to break the rent strike
02:51by offering individual deals.
02:53The tenants on the rent strike want the landlord to cancel the rent
02:56and hope the city will as well.
02:58The rent strike is not over yet.
03:02Here's the kitchen.
03:04We put the food in there and everything.
03:07Then I say, where's the supermarket?
03:10This here is a mess.
03:12Why? Because no one comes to tell them, look, don't do this, because it's not here.
03:16The cameras are here, he can check them, but he doesn't do anything.
03:20So, I don't understand.
03:23I also met with Arcadio Peña, who's been part of the rent strike since September.
03:27He lives here with his wife and two-year-old daughter.
03:30He lost his job in construction because of the pandemic.
03:36How nice!
03:38Let's start with this one.
03:41If you want to lock it, there.
03:45Look, I always hit myself every time I want to do it.
03:48Look.
03:52You can't open that.
03:54If there's a test here, we're going to die because I won't be able to open that.
04:00If you look here, it's full of glue.
04:04Why? Because there was a leak here.
04:07A pipe that goes down here broke.
04:13So, they seem to have left a hole there and the mice are getting in there.
04:18My wife was here, my daughter was there, and the mouse went through there.
04:22My daughter fell here.
04:24Because there's a hole here where the rat gets in.
04:27And it's a big rat because, look, my hand almost goes in there.
04:37Everything that's here, the apartment, you look at it like this.
04:41Because I did it. It's not that I fixed it.
04:44I did it. I did this bathroom.
04:46When I did it, this was here.
04:50Look, what they do, I told them what's coming.
04:53Because before the cockroaches and mice got in here.
04:56Because there was a hole?
04:58No, because the bathtub is sinking.
05:02What it does is throw cement there.
05:04The floor is rotten.
05:06Imagine that there is someone who is bathing down there.
05:09And this is going to kill the people down there and know what's going to happen to you.
05:14Things are not good here in this building.
05:16Definitely, I'm telling you, things are not good.
05:18So I don't know what we can do.
05:20I called 3 times here to see.
05:22More than anything, about the rats.
05:25And about the exit of the fall.
05:27This is also important.
05:29Because one, well, if I had another bathroom, I would bathe there.
05:32But I can't. It's the only one I have.
05:34But yes, definitely, I'm afraid that one day this will go away.
05:39Because it's going down more and more.
05:46There are times when there is work.
05:48There are times when there is not.
05:50One day there is work, another day there is not.
05:52So it's very difficult.
05:54What we used to do, she would get up early.
05:56She would go to a place where they would give her food.
05:58And that helped us a lot, you know.
06:00Even when we had a lot, we would give it to the neighbors there.
06:04But it was very difficult.
06:06Because we had a lot of money.
06:08We had a lot of money.
06:10We had a lot of money.
06:12We had a lot of money.
06:14We even gave it to the neighbors there.
06:16But God does not leave us alone, you know.
06:19And with the savings and things like that that we have,
06:22well, there we are surviving.
06:44For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov