Residents of 643 Southern Blvd. held an evening rally on Jan. 11 against their landlord, David Tennenbaum and Denali Management, whom they accuse of neglecting necessary repairs in the building and overcharging some longtime tenants.
At the 46-unit building, tenants have formally organized since 2019 but have recently escalated actions after seeing minimal response to their complaints. Denali Management did not respond to voicemail and email request for comment.
Tennenbaum ranked number six on the city’s Worst Landlords list in 2024, and the Southern Blvd. tenants are not alone in their public actions against him.
Last spring, residents of 514, 518 and 528 East 138th St. also rallied against Tennenbaum for lack of heat, pests, water leaks and broken locks on the front doors. In addition, residents of two of his properties in the Claremont neighborhood protested in Nov. 2024 after going weeks without cooking gas, among other problems.
Records show 143 open violations at 643 Southern Blvd., 41 of which are Class C, meaning “imminently hazardous” and requiring repair within 24 hours. These include roaches, peeling lead-based paint, lack of heat and hot water and water leaks in the ceiling.
Osvaldo Valerio, a community organizer with Banana Kelly, said the residents are living in “honestly deplorable conditions,” and management does not promptly respond to calls or emails regarding repairs, he said. “Despite all the meetings, despite all the press conference, they’ve always failed to keep their promises.”
One resident named Juan, who wore a hat and jacket from his job with Dial-A-Bug Pest Control, said the building has a rat problem and that residents can hear them moving in the walls.
He and his neighbors will continue to rally and press managers to take action, however, “I think New York City will have to start demanding more accountability from owners like these,” Juan said.
Another resident, Tomasa, who has lived in the building for 20 years, explained that past meetings with building management have only resulted in short-term fixes.
At one point, a group met with five representatives, she said. “From that meeting came the declaration that this would be the beginning of a new chapter and that it would open up greater communication,” but that time never came, said Tomasa.
The company put out brochures for residents to request repairs and promised to increase the number of people available to take phone calls. They said “that the building would be unrecognizable” after all the work was done, according to Tomasa. But again, the residents were let down by the lack of follow-through.
“I want to make it very clear that this is not normal, that we should not be at 6:00 in the evening in front of our building having to tell our own stories to the press,” she said, adding that many residents have paid for their repairs rather than wait on management.
Other longtime residents said that in addition to problems in their units, they’re also being overcharged with no explanation.
Janet Avila has lived in the first-floor apartment near the front door since 1984. Last month, she was shocked to see a new charge on her monthly rent bill: $1,373.01 for a “security deposit.”
Adding to the confusion, the mail-in portion at the bottom of the statement said she owed a total of $1,641.10.
Avila also said she was approved for a rent freeze via the SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) program in August but has yet to see it applied to her account.
Inside the apartment, Avila said she has several concerns amplified by the fact that her seven-month-old granddaughter lives there.
The flooring in the living room and bathroom is cracked and uneven, and repairs are done “little by little,” Avila said.
The family has also seen mice and roaches in the apartment, which they believe are coming in through small cracks between the flooring and the walls. Avila’s daughter, Johanna Barros, who lives in the apartment, showed a photo of a large hole behind the living room radiator that she believes allowed at least one rat to get inside. Her family patched as many holes as they could find because management was unresponsive, she said.
Barros said she never leaves her baby on the floor for fear of pests crawling on her. Though the apartment seemed clean, Barros said that high-quality, thorough repairs have not been done. “They do half-assed jobs here,” she said.
Another of Avila’s daughters, Viviane Alonzo, spoke at the rally about the decades of problems she has seen at the apartment in which she was raised. She said it pained her to see her mother, sister and niece living in poor conditions.
“When are we gonna be able for her to live at peace, not to have to do this?” she said. “I’ve seen so many managers go through this building. They start doing the job, and they never finish it.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
