Aside from co-op development, UHAB provides other services to support tenants. Our Policy and New Projects department facilitates a Tenant Takeover Space alongside our partners. In this space, tenants can share their experiences with their Building Takeover Campaigns.
To learn more about some of the buildings we have worked with, read some of the articles below!
700 E 134th St
A Landlord ‘Underestimated’ His Tenants. Now They Could Own the Building
The New York Times, May 8, 2022
When a new landlord bought their building in the Bronx and threatened to raise rents and kick them out, tenants banded together. They never expected how far they might get: the chance to buy their apartments for $2,500 each.
As Rents Rise in the Bronx, Old-Timers Feel the Pressure
The New York Times, July 7, 2017
The tenement at 700 East 134th Street in Port Morris shares the block with a stand of clapboard row houses, a metalworker and a document shredding facility. Tenants, many of whom have lived on this quiet, gritty block in the South Bronx for the better part of a decade, pay around $1,000 a month for their apartments.
63 Tiffany Pl
Tenants, officials rally to save 63 Tiffany Place, in gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 1, 2024
Waving signs reading “TOPA and COPA,” dozens of tenants of 63 Tiffany Place, in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District, rallied along with numerous state and city officials on Thursday to stave off eviction from their 70-unit, low-income housing.
Affordable Housing Tenants in Carroll Gardens Fight to Stay in Their Homes
BK Reader, November 1, 2024
Waving signs reading “TOPA and COPA,” dozens of tenants of 63 Tiffany Place, in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District, rallied along with numerous state and city officials on Thursday to stave off eviction from their 70-unit, low-income housing.
63 Tiffany brings out politicos on Halloween morning
Red Hook Star Revue, November 18, 2024
The building’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is expiring and that means all of the residents of 63 Tiffany are at risk of massive rent hikes that would force them out of their homes. Landlord Irving Langer bought the building in 2010. He has appeared on the Public Advocate’s Worst Landlord Watchlist due to cases of deferred maintenance, displacement of tenants, and deregulation of affordable housing.
Brooklyn Tenants Brace for ‘Doomsday’ As Their Affordable Housing Deal Nears Its End
CityLimits, February 27, 2025
During these last three decades, Leyva and other residents of 63 Tiffany have been able to afford their rents, even amidst Carroll Garden’s swift gentrification, thanks primarily to a federal subsidy known as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Today, he pays just under $1,200 per month, a far cry from the market-rate asking prices for a two-bedroom in the area, with online listings ranging between $3,214 to $6,300 at press time.
This federal subsidy, called LIHTC for short, has one catch: it expires after 30 years. And 63 Tiffany is nearly there.
Ohebshalom Buildings
NYC’s ‘worst landlord’ going to jail after turning himself in to city sheriff
Gothamist, March 21, 2024
A notorious New York City landlord turned himself in to the city’s sheriff on Thursday too begin a two-month jail sentence after blowing off a judge’s orders to correct a raft of hazards at two Upper Manhattan apartment buildings he owns.
NYC judge orders new arrest warrant for ‘worst landlord’ jailed in March
Gothamist, August 5, 2024
A jailed Manhattan judge said Monday he will issue a new arrest warrant for a notorious New York City landlord for failing to make hundreds of court-ordered repairs at two crumbling apartment buildings he owns in Washington Heights.
Dukler Portfolio
The Crumbling Building Where No One Claims To Be the Landlord – A real-estate deal that went bad has left tenants in legal limbo.
Curbed, December 8, 2022
Conditions like these — while extreme — aren’t unheard of in New York City. But this building has an even more fundamental problem: Nobody claims to own it. “You don’t know who to complain to,” Stamp says. “The money’s been collected, but we don’t know who gets the money. They’re certainly not putting the money into the building.” This has made it difficult for tenants and the city to hold someone responsible for repairs.
What If We Made It Easier for Renters to Buy Their Buildings? A new bill in Albany would put them first in line and give them the funding to do it.
Curbed, March 8, 2023
Viola Straker and her neighbors in her 31-unit Crown Heights building have a proposal to end the yearslong standoff over who owns 1074 Eastern Parkway: Sell the building to them. “Tenants would be better off purchasing instead of selling it to another slumlord,” she says…. New York’s TOPA bill would create a pool of funding to help tenants buy their building, and staff up housing agencies to help tenants through the process. It would also give tenants as long as nine months to submit a statement of interest, form a tenants’ association, propose an offer, and secure financing, during which time the landlord wouldn’t be able to sell to any other party. The goal is to deter speculative flipping, and keep buildings in the hands of the people who actually call them home.
2201-2205 Davidson Avenue
NYC seizes negligent landlord’s building for first time in 7 years
Gothamist, April 8, 2025
Broken elevators, leaking pipes, roach infestations. Unfortunately for a lot of tenants in the Bronx, the conditions inside 2201-2205 Davidson Ave. won’t come as a surprise….After more than a decade of tenant organizing against the landlord, New York City foreclosed on the 49-unit building and turned it over to a nonprofit developer and private manager specializing in restoration. It’s the first such seizure in seven years after the city suspended a controversial foreclosure program known as Third-Party Transfer, and local leaders say it’s a template for holding landlords accountable in the future.