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Tenants Share Nightmare Videos of Living With Bedbugs and Rats

By Carolina Pichardo | January 13, 2017 3:48pm | Updated on January 16, 2017 8:34am

INWOOD — Residents of a building where a gas leak sent 16 tenants to the hospital shared a sickening picture of their living conditions, including a video showing a shower curtain dripping with bed bugs.

Dozens of tenants from 3852-3856 10th Ave. joined elected officials to demand their landlord and the city step up to improve conditions in their home, which many said was infested with roaches, rats and bed bugs.

The two properties have been slapped with about 500 housing violations dating back as early as 1988, all of which are still open, according to Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.

Transgressions include broken sinks, missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, broken light fixtures, lead-based paint, boiler issues and pests, records from the city's Department of Housing, Preservation and Development show.

The protest Thursday night, dubbed "Rally to Stand Up to Slumlord," comes just days after a gas leak at 3852 10th Ave. sent 16 residents to the hospital with headaches, stomach pains and nausea for over-exposure to carbon monoxide on Jan. 7.

► Read more: Gas Leak in Troubled Uptown Building Leaves 16 Residents Hospitalized, FDNY Says

City officials determined the source of the leak was the boiler and ordered it shut down, leaving tenants without heat or hot water for days. The boiler was finally repaired Friday morning and heat and hot water restored, according a DOB spokesman and residents.

But the incident left residents shaken, including 37-year-old Ygnacia Roman, who said the leak had triggered an asthma attack.

"They sent me to see a specialist because I inhaled too much carbon [monoxide] and it triggered a bad asthma attack," said Roman, adding that this is the first time she's had a problem with her asthma in almost two years.

"I felt nauseous, without strength... I thought I was going to die," she said.

Aside from the gas leak, Roman, who lives in the apartment with her teenage son, said she's been living in terror because of the rats that crawl all over her home, including in her bed.

"[The rats] come all the time," she said. "It's like they help pay the rent. We don't know what to do anymore."

She shared a video with DNAinfo New York showing rats running around in her living room and kitchen. 

Another resident, 47-year-old Asuncion Sanchez, who lives in the building with his wife and cousin, said the bed bug infestation in his apartment has gotten so bad, he sees them crawling out from floor boards and on his shower curtain.

"They're everywhere," Sanchez said. He shared a video with DNAinfo showing dozens of bed bugs floating in his bathtub after he dipped his shower curtain into hot water.

Sanchez said he held off paying rent two months ago in hopes of forcing the landlord to make fixes. But even if tenants organize a rent strike, the building's management forces them to pay in other ways, said resident Floralina Washington.

"Everyone pays their rent here and when we don't, we get charged extra,"  said Washington, who's lived in the building for 30 years and said that conditions have been bad most of that time.

Councilman Rodriguez assured residents that HPD would be investigating all violations currently filed on the building in the coming days, and then will work with the landlord to make repairs.

If the landlord refuses to make repairs, HPD will make the repairs and bill the landlord for the services, Rodriguez said.

"It's despicable when a landlord refuses to make vital repairs, allows tenants in their buildings to freeze during the coldest months of the year and remains unresponsive to concerns," the councilman said.

HPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the repairs.

The buildings' landlord — listed as Confe Realty Corp. on property records — did not respond to a request for comment. Kitty Huang, of Zeev Realty Co., who residents say manages the building, also did not respond to requests for comment.