Concerned tenants and members of the Sunset Park community will gather outside the office of Mr. Hagan 908 4th Avenue in Sunset Park at 1:00 PM Thursday November 15th to call on Mr. Geula and Mr. Hagan to cease and desist in their attempts to force out long-time, low-income residents.
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For planning purposes only
Contact: Taylor Graham, Tenant Organizer -718-686-7946 x19
t.graham@nhnhome.org
Where: 908 4th Avenue in Sunset Park (between 33rd & 34th Streets)
Who: Sunset Park community and tenants, Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Brooklyn, NY - Sunset Park landlords now see profitable opportunities in driving out long-term, low-income tenants and charging luxury rents to newcomers. Prominent among these landlords is Jack Geula, who with the help of his lawyer Sam Hagan, is on an aggressive campaign to undermine the diversity of this immigrant community and remove the nearly 200 rent-stabilized tenants who were living in his 9 buildings when he bought them in 2006.
Inadequate laws fail to protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords such as Mr. Geula. Landlords are not prevented from pestering, harassing, deceiving, and threatening tenants to the point that they flee their apartments. Critical to this process are the fast-talking landlords' attorneys who make their livings by evictions, drafting menacing notices, and bullying un-represented tenants into signing away their homes. Immigrants with little fluency in English and those who do not know their rights are especially vulnerable. Once evicted from their place in this working neighborhood that has traditionally welcomed new immigrants, families find little help and face withering hardship.
Concerned tenants and members of the Sunset Park community will gather outside the office of Mr. Hagan 908 4th Avenue in Sunset Park at 1:00 PM Thursday November 15th to call on Mr. Geula and Mr. Hagan to cease and desist in their attempts to force out long-time, low-income residents.
**All members of the media are invited to attend**
