Asian American for Equality (AAFE) has helped organize a group of Essex Street tenants who are filing a lawsuit against their landlord for carrying out a frightening series of illegal construction jobs in a bid to force them out of their rent-stabilized apartments.
The tenants of 43 Essex Street, who will be represented by Legal Services NYC (LSNYC), have endured harassment in various forms since Paul Galasso, of 43 Essex LLC, purchased the building for $6.9 million in December, 2014: Illegal construction work has compromised the integrity of the building; the apartments lack heat, hot water, and gas; and the landlord has employed a notorious tenant relocator, Michel Pimienta of BSD Equities, to intimidate tenants into accepting buyout offers to leave.
Find out more about AAFE’s fight against tenant harassment here.
