FORT GEORGE — A laundry room in a residential building has become a battleground between tenants and outsiders ever since the owner opened it up to the public, residents say — and the Department of Buildings said the move is in violation of city rules.
Tenants at 550 Audubon Ave., between 192nd and 193rd streets, say it's been chaos in their basement laundry room ever since outsiders were invited in to use the machines a little more than a year ago — despite a housing permit that the city says expressly restricts the room to residents only.
Owner Stephen Shapiro confirmed to DNAinfo New York that he opened the laundry room's 16 washers and 16 dryers to the public, saying there are more than enough machines to serve the 46-unit building and those who live nearby.
“We try to make it an accommodation for the neighborhood,” Shapiro said. “We’re proud of it. We try to make it a less-expensive facility for local people who are poor.”
It costs $2.25 to wash a large load in the building, compared to $3 at the nearest laundromat. A regular load costs $1.25, compared to $2 at the laundromat.
He added that he knows that the move has upset some in his building, but said they were a minority of tenants.
“The one or two people that I think this is coming from want this to be exclusive to the building,” he said. “That’s nice, but it’s not part of their services [as defined by their leases].”
However, officials at the City's Department of Buildings said Shapiro does not have permission from the city to operate a commercial laundromat on the premises.
According to a Department of Building's spokesman, the building’s Certificate of Occupancy is classified for residential use, which would make the use of the laundry by the public a violation. The spokesman noted that a DOB inspector will have to visit the site to determine if a violation is warranted.
Shapiro said he is in the process of getting a permit to operate the laundry room publicly, but would not say with whom he had filed the application.
Tenants say that opening the facility to the public has created security concerns and has resulted in fights and thefts.
The laundry room can be accessed by the public through an alley that leads to Audubon Avenue. Tenants say that the door to the facility is left unlocked until the building's super closes the laundry room at the end of the night.
On a recent visit to the building, a DNAinfo reporter was able to access the laundry room without assistance from a tenant or the super.
"It’s convenient to have it downstairs, but what I found concerning is that the door is always open," said a resident of 30-plus years who did not want to give her name. "It’s especially a concern if there's someone in there you don’t know who is not a resident."
Residents said that there are also occasionally arguments between tenants and non-tenants over use of the machines, leading to at least one brawl.
Tiffany Thomas, 38, who has lived in the building for 13 years, said she was issued a disorderly conduct summons by the 34th Precinct after she and another woman got into a fight in the laundry room last month.
Thomas explained that she placed her clothes in a washer but had to go back to her apartment when she realized she’d forgotten detergent.
“I was gone maybe 15 minutes,” she recounted. “I come back downstairs and my stuff is in a cart.”
Thomas, who added that her son’s clothing was once stolen from the laundry room, said it was not the first time someone had moved her clothes.
“I was furious,” she remembered. “She basically said, ‘You took too long. Oh well. I needed the machine.’”
Thomas decided to drop the issue and complain to her super, but ended up running into the woman near the laundry room a few days later.
The two women got into a physical fight related to their previous argument. Police responded to the scene to write them both tickets, she said.
The 34th Precinct did not respond to a request for comment.
Thomas said that she regrets that the dispute became physical, but said she worries that a similar situation could arise again.
"I had a feeling it was going to get to that point because there were so many other situations, verbal altercations between tenants and other people," Thomas said.
Tenants said that some of those altercations have been over stolen laundry.
Maureen Murphy has lived in the building for about 8 years. She said that a few months ago, she left her laundry in a machine for a few minutes and found that it had disappeared when she returned. When other patrons pointed out the culprit, Murphy confronted her.
“I got her to admit it and I got my laundry back,” Murphy said, noting that other tenants have not been so lucky. “Full loads of laundry have been lost or stolen."
Murphy said she now takes her wash to a laundromat because the building’s facility has become so problematic.
Bob Farrell, 59, was doing his laundry on a recent rainy Monday afternoon in hopes of finding the room uncrowded.
“This is the only time it’s empty,” he said. “Most of the time it’s mobbed. Sometimes I come and I have to turn back.”
Farrell said that he has even seen people pull up in cars and bring their laundry into the facility.
At least five tenants said that they have complained to both the building’s super and owner about the conditions.
“Mr. Shapiro’s response to the whole situation was, ‘Next time you want to do laundry, just call Carlos [the super] and he’ll make sure to hold the machine for you,” Thomas said, echoing other tenants' experiences. “That’s not a solution.”
Shapiro acknowledged he has fielded complaints from tenants about laundry room crowding, but said he was shocked to hear about the thefts and fight.
“We have security cameras all over the place. No one reported this incident to us,” he said. “If they had, we would have checked the cameras and dealt with it immediately."
