For decades, tenants of Westchester Plaza in Mount Vernon have fought owners of the rent controlled housing to maintain a swimming pool and other amenities, according to a lawsuit, and 16 times the state agency that regulates the apartment complex has backed them.
But the swimming pool was eventually demolished, and after years of supporting the tenants’ the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal (HCR) ruled recently that the recreational facility was not an essential service and could be replaced with a park and “sitting area.”
The owner has replaced the swimming pool, wading pool, sauna, steam room and showers with “a patch of weeds and grass and an asphalt running track,” according to the petition, and has not offered to reduce rents.
Now the Westchester Plaza Tenants Coalition is petitioning Westchester Supreme Court to annul the housing agency’s decision.
Charni Sochet, spokeswoman for the agency, said in an email that “HCR does not comment on pending litigation.”
The Lefrak Organization built Westchester Plaza in the late 1960s or early 1970s, according to the petition. It is the largest apartment complex in Mount Vernon, composed of three 7-story buildings and a 21-story building.
The recreational amenities are what attracted many people to live there, according to the tenants, and the pool facilities were registered with HCR as an essential service.
The tenants claim that the owners allowed the swimming pool to deteriorate. Residents held a series of rent strikes in the 1980s and 1990s to restore the pool facilities, the petition states, and all were “resolved in the tenants’ favor.”
By 1998, the swimming pool was no longer usable. In 2004, tenants complained to the housing agency that the “pool has been a source of tenant outrage and frustration over the past six years.”
Lefrak sold Westchester Plaza in 2008 to Westchester Plaza Holdings, an affiliate of Urban American Partners, of New Jersey.
The tenants claim that the new owner also has neglected the pool facility.
Around 2016, the tenants allege, the owner demolished the swimming pool in retaliation for their complaints, “illegally and without HCR permission.”
HCR ordered the owner to reduce the rents.
Then in 2017, Urban American asked HCR to increase the rents, claiming that services had been restored. Sixteen times, the petition states, the housing agency has ruled that the owner was obligated to restore the pool facilities, and five times denied requests to restore rents.
In 2018, Urban American sought permission to replace the pool facilities with a park and sitting area. This time, HCR ruled that the pool facilities were not an essential service and that previous rulings had only ordered “access” to the pool, not restoration of the pool.
The tenants coalition appealed the ruling but lost.
Now the tenants want the court to overrule HCR.
“It makes no sense to read the agency’s 16 prior orders as requiring only “access” to the ruins of what used to be the pool facilities,” the petition states.
“Permitting owners to get away with years of inadequate maintenance, and to keep the money extracted from tenants in exchange for inadequate and diminished services” would be inconsistent with the law.
Manhattan attorney Seth A. Miller represents the tenants.
This is a story of greed and fraud. Plain and simple. But not of the landlord, but of the tenants. For many years, my seemingly righteous neighbors continue to avoid telling the truth that the pool club in the old days was not a service that was included in the rent. There was an extra charge for it and it wasn’t for the exclusive use of Westchester Plaza tenants. That is why HCR finally said enough is enough. My neighbors need to stop abusing the legal process for their own greedy aims of keeping their rent stabilized rents really low and to stop shamefully wasting government resources that our tax dollars pay for. With all the homelessness and people down on their luck, you’ve grateful that you have clean, nice and safe building to live in.