Covid evictions: Inside the NYC rent strike

Brut America

Cockroaches, rats, dirty water, mold, leaking holes ... and no money to pay rent amid the Covid crisis.  Brut met the Bronx residents at the center of a major rent strike. Here's what we saw.

Transcript

00:00Look at the hole I have, look.

00:02How long has it been like this?

00:04It's been like this for over a year and a half.

00:06Look how they had to cover the toilet, look.

00:10And make a little wall because all the dirty water comes out in the toilet.

00:14He's calling me, he's sent me letters and sent me documents

00:18threatening that he's going to evict me.

00:20I have nowhere to go.

00:22For brew, I'm taking you to a building in the Bronx where a group of 40 tenants are on a rent strike.

00:33The pandemic has hit them hard because they've lost their jobs and can't pay their rent.

00:37The tenants here say that the landlord provides no services and that they themselves have to pay for their repairs.

00:43Please come in.

00:50Hello.

00:52My wife.

00:54Nice to meet you, Elisa.

00:56Look, these holes have been there for 8 years.

01:00There's hot water there.

01:02So that it doesn't get damaged, they made that hole in the middle, look.

01:08Look how I have it, look.

01:10Look how I have it so I can live a little, look.

01:13Look, look.

01:15It's not the first time I've thrown away garbage, look.

01:18Look how I have it, look.

01:20I've already thrown it out there.

01:23Look, this here, this bathroom, look how I have it.

01:27That dirty water comes down every day and we have to wash the bathtub.

01:30Look how that bathtub is.

01:32I painted it.

01:34Rats and cockroaches used to come in here and they wouldn't let me sleep.

01:37Look, look.

01:38They used to come in here?

01:39Yes, they used to come in here.

01:40I had to cover it with cement because they wouldn't let me sleep.

01:43Here we had to do the same.

01:47Here it's all covered, look.

01:49All the walls, because they came from below, like this, in the middle of the walls.

01:53The windows, look how I have them.

01:56Because they don't fix anything for me.

01:58They don't fix anything for me.

01:59Look at the paint I put on it so I can survive a little.

02:03Jimmy has been living here for 12 years and stopped paying rent in March

02:07because he lost his job as a mechanic.

02:09He lives with his wife and his son just came back

02:12and he's living in the living room because he lost his job as well.

02:15He's calling me and sending me letters and documents

02:21threatening to evict me.

02:27There's no work, miss.

02:29What I'm doing right now is collecting bottles to survive

02:33and I don't even have enough to eat.

02:36How are we going to pay the rent?

02:39A few months ago the landlord offered a rent reduction of 50%

02:43but it came with conditions like dropping a lawsuit over living conditions.

02:47The tenants say that ever since he's been trying to break the rent strike

02:51by offering individual deals.

02:53The tenants on the rent strike want the landlord to cancel the rent

02:56and hope the city will as well.

02:58The rent strike is not over yet.

03:02Here's the kitchen.

03:04We put the food in there and everything.

03:07Then I say, where's the supermarket?

03:10This here is a mess.

03:12Why? Because no one comes to tell them, look, don't do this, because it's not here.

03:16The cameras are here, he can check them, but he doesn't do anything.

03:20So, I don't understand.

03:23I also met with Arcadio Peña, who's been part of the rent strike since September.

03:27He lives here with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

03:30He lost his job in construction because of the pandemic.

03:36How nice!

03:38Let's start with this one.

03:41If you want to lock it, there.

03:45Look, I always hit myself every time I want to do it.

03:48Look.

03:52You can't open that.

03:54If there's a test here, we're going to die because I won't be able to open that.

04:00If you look here, it's full of glue.

04:04Why? Because there was a leak here.

04:07A pipe that goes down here broke.

04:13So, they seem to have left a hole there and the mice are getting in there.

04:18My wife was here, my daughter was there, and the mouse went through there.

04:22My daughter fell here.

04:24Because there's a hole here where the rat gets in.

04:27And it's a big rat because, look, my hand almost goes in there.

04:37Everything that's here, the apartment, you look at it like this.

04:41Because I did it. It's not that I fixed it.

04:44I did it. I did this bathroom.

04:46When I did it, this was here.

04:50Look, what they do, I told them what's coming.

04:53Because before the cockroaches and mice got in here.

04:56Because there was a hole?

04:58No, because the bathtub is sinking.

05:02What it does is throw cement there.

05:04The floor is rotten.

05:06Imagine that there is someone who is bathing down there.

05:09And this is going to kill the people down there and know what's going to happen to you.

05:14Things are not good here in this building.

05:16Definitely, I'm telling you, things are not good.

05:18So I don't know what we can do.

05:20I called 3 times here to see.

05:22More than anything, about the rats.

05:25And about the exit of the fall.

05:27This is also important.

05:29Because one, well, if I had another bathroom, I would bathe there.

05:32But I can't. It's the only one I have.

05:34But yes, definitely, I'm afraid that one day this will go away.

05:39Because it's going down more and more.

05:46There are times when there is work.

05:48There are times when there is not.

05:50One day there is work, another day there is not.

05:52So it's very difficult.

05:54What we used to do, she would get up early.

05:56She would go to a place where they would give her food.

05:58And that helped us a lot, you know.

06:00Even when we had a lot, we would give it to the neighbors there.

06:04But it was very difficult.

06:06Because we had a lot of money.

06:08We had a lot of money.

06:10We had a lot of money.

06:12We had a lot of money.

06:14We even gave it to the neighbors there.

06:16But God does not leave us alone, you know.

06:19And with the savings and things like that that we have,

06:22well, there we are surviving.

06:44For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov

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