Housing Authority Residents Endure Deplorable Conditions NYCHA Residents Decry Dangerous Conditions that they say have been ignored for years

Upper West Side Public housing residents on the Upper West Side are claiming an epidemic of dangerous conditions at two buildings in the Douglass Houses complex in the vicinity of West 103rd Street and Manhattan Avenue.

At 74 West 103rd Street, significant water damage is visible in three apartments visited by the West Side Spirit. Residents say the building's roof is in very bad shape and has been leaking for the past two years.

Jennifer Sinclair, 27, has a unit on the fourth floor of the 30-unit building but hasn't stayed there since 2012 due to the steadily deteriorating conditions.

“They refuse to move us and we're still paying rent,” said Sinclair, who pays $400/month for her unit at 74 West 103rd Street while also paying $400/month to live across town with friends. “We're paying double.”

Sinclair said she moved into the unit with her mother in 2010 and was forced to move out in 2012 due to water damage. The floor in her living room is sagging badly and a wall separating the bathroom and living room has all but disintegrated.

Across the hall lives Connie Taylor, 61, who due to scoliosis and arthritis hasn't been out of her apartment in over a year. Whenever it rains, she said, her apartment floods.

“So far, they haven't done anything,” said Taylor of the housing authority. She estimates she first contacted NYCHA last winter, and since then has taken to keeping a platoon of buckets in the hallway to catch drips whenever it rains.

“When it rains outside it rains in here,” said Carmen Quinones, a neighborhood activist who's pushing the New York City Housing Authority to address the conditions.

On the fifth floor, resident Michael Olivencia first started having water leak into his apartment in 2010. His three neighbors on the floor all left because water inundated their apartments, he said.

“You can't fix this apartment without fixing the roof,” said Olivencia. “They said this building is too old and too fragile to fix.”

The ceiling in his bathroom has a significant amount of mold to the point where Quinones and others who toured his apartment fear such exposure will lead to health problems.

At 51-53 Manhattan Avenue, residents say a bedbug infestation has reached crisis proportions and that they need to be relocated.

“I'd have left by now if I had the money,” said Tiffany Smith, who moved into the building in 2008. “The conditions have been like that since day one.”

Smith said she's been back and forth with NCYHA over repairs but nothing ever seems to get done.

“It feels like the same routine, why do I constantly have to keep going there?” said Smith. “They refuse to move me. I feel like I'm held hostage, I don't want to be in that building.”

Smith has a five-month old boy with eczema and an eight-year-old boy with asthma, and believes conditions in her unit contribute to her children's health problems. Every night they get eaten by bed bugs, she said. Quinones said she doesn't go into Smith's apartment without taking protective measures like placing plastic bags over her shoes.

“I have clothes in bags because of the bedbugs,” said Smith. “I haven't unpacked anything in six years. I've been on the waiting list for a paint job for four years.”

Quinones said between the two properties, she's collected 18 complaint forms and given them to Public Advocate Letitia James' office as well as Assembly Member Daniel O'Donnell's office.

A spokesperson for NYCHA said that they're aware of the problems in the two buildings, but can't do much due to a lack of funds.

“Some issues are related to the roof, which is major capital work,” said a spokesperson about 74 West 103rd Street. “We're looking to get funding there but our funding continues to shrink so I can't say we have money available for that.”

A formal statement later came in from NYCHA via email.

“NYCHA recognizes that there is a certain level of frustration from residents as it moves forward with making repairs to improve their quality of life and we are making progress in spite of our ever shrinking funding,” said the housing authority in a statement. “Under new leadership, NYCHA has been seeking solutions and working diligently to both reduce the backlog of work orders and cut down on wait times for repairs, as evidenced by the continually updated data available on the NYCHA metrics section of our website, a commitment to greater transparency.”

The housing authority also said they're moving forward with already-scheduled work at 74 West 103rd Street, which includes some repairs to the roof and the affected apartments.

In the meantime, there isn't much residents can do but try to get by and agitate for change. Quinones said she thinks these conditions are common in much of the Douglass Houses due to their age and lack of upkeep.

“Nobody is looking out for these people,” said Quinones, who's lived in the neighborhood for over 40 years and was a former Democratic district leader. “It's happening in all of the Douglass Houses.”

The wall separating Jennifer Sinclair's living room and bathroom at 74 West 103rd Street. Photos by Daniel Fitzsimmons

Connie Taylor's hallway at 74 West 103rd Street.

The ceiling in Michael Olivencia's bathroom at 74 West 103rd Street is inundated with mold.