Charlene Banks, Robert Fulton Tenants Association: Good morning, everyone. My name is Charlene Banks with the Robert Fulton Tenants Association. I'm happy to welcome you here, Mr. Mayor, today for this exciting announcement. It is not every day that we get the mayor of New York City visiting our building and our community. I will cut to the chase: our buildings need serious repairs. We need new management. I have to stress: we need and want new management. But this mayor has shown that he is on the side of the tenants like us, who are fighting against bad landlords and neglect. So today, we finally have some reasons to have hope in our fight for repairs and a more stable home. To share what the city of New York plans to do with our building, I am thrilled to welcome to the stage Mr. Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Thank you, can we have a round of applause for Charlene Banks? It is an honor to be in Morrisania alongside the advocates, city workers and tenants who worked so hard for this moment. And I want to acknowledge not only our tenant leader, Charlene Banks, but also Linda Kemp. And I want to thank our leaders from our city administration. We have our HPD commissioner, Dina Levy. We have our director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, Cea Weaver. And we also have our borough president here, Vanessa Gibson. I think that we will shortly be joined by Council Member Althea Stevens, as well as Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Before I begin remarks, I do also want to give a real shout-out to Legal Aid and to Our Bronx for the work that all of you have been doing. Because it is a pleasure to stand alongside all of you. And I want you to know that what we speak about today is not possible unless the work that you have done has actually continued to be done.
Now, we know that when Robert Fulton Terrace opened in 1967, the apartments were advertised to middle-income families as "luxury you can afford." At the time, that was true. Sister buildings were part of the Mitchell-Lama housing initiatives that provided stability and security for thousands of families. Robert Fulton Terrace, where we are right now, included a playground, communal spaces like this one, 25 percent of units reserved for the elderly, all for a reasonable $29.30 monthly rental fee per room. For working families, these apartments offered a path to a life of dignity. This is what the American dream had felt like. But as the years wore on, the dream of luxury you can afford descended into a nightmare. The two buildings were sold to a series of speculators and soon fell into a pattern of disrepair and foreclosure. While irresponsible landlords lined their pockets, tenants in the buildings, nearly 500 units, paid the price.
In a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society in 2024, tenants described going without hot water for days on end, forcing them to boil water just to bathe. Tenants described rat infestations [and] broken elevators that trapped them in 17-story towers. People went to sleep hungry because a trip to the grocery store to buy a carton of eggs or a gallon of milk required walking up and down hundreds of stairs. These conditions, to put it very simply, were inhumane. So, the New Yorkers who live here did what New Yorkers do when they are confronted by an injustice: they organized. They called for change. They fought for their right to a dignified life. And I'm very proud that two senior leaders from my administration that are here with us today, HPD Commissioner Levy and Director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants Weaver, organized alongside them. And that organizing made a difference, and one that we are here together today to mark.
For today, we are announcing unprecedented action against the current landlords of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers, Karan Singh and Rajmattie Persaud. After two years of litigation, HPD has secured $31 million in penalties, the largest civil penalty won in HPD history, all on behalf of the residents of these buildings. This is a long time coming. For years, Singh and Persaud let more than 1,000 violations accumulate while they collected rent month after month. They have over-leveraged this building and Fordham Towers multiple times. They are on Public Advocate Jumaane Williams' list of worst landlords, and for good reason. That is why this court penalty includes the appointment of a chief restructuring officer, who is in charge and has already hired a property manager to ensure that repairs are actually made. We have negotiated that at least $900,000, for the chief restructuring officer, be put towards repairs immediately. These funds come directly from the landlords' accounts, money that should have otherwise been allocated towards this work long ago.
And we will not only make the urgent repairs that are needed today but also the long-term improvements that tenants deserve. We are calling on Fannie Mae to work with the city to secure a preservation buyer for these homes, one who will actually deliver on the investments and the improvements that tenants deserve. Because this is more than just a conversation around patchwork solutions to ensure that you can live from today to tomorrow. It's about shattering a cycle of abuse and neglect that has long defined not just these towers, but frankly affordable housing across our city. And as we look to tomorrow, we will ensure the end of this impunity is measured not merely in accountability for those landlords who have violated our city's housing laws but also in better living conditions for those who are forced to live under their negligence.
This win must mean something comprehensive and lasting to tenants. Our administration will use every tool we have to not only create new affordable housing but to preserve existing affordable housing. Because the promise of luxury you can afford should not feel like a relic of a bygone era, it should be the promise of a future that we build together. And it will be. Because City Hall is going to continue to use every lever at our disposal to make real the promise of affordable, stable housing across the five boroughs. Thank you very much. And with that, I would like to introduce our Commissioner of HPD, Dina Levy.
Dina Levy, Commissioner, Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Morning, everybody. So today marks the beginning of a new chapter in a long and frankly ugly history endured by the tenants of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers. The story, as the mayor said, is personal to me, because I was a tenant organizer in these buildings nearly 20 years ago when real estate speculators first took them out of the Mitchell-Lama program. Since that time, nearly 500 families have seen their homes flip from one bad actor to another, landing with the current owners, as the mayor said, Singh and Persaud, who, in addition to racking up 1,600 code violations, have also been featured on the city's Worst Landlord [Watchlist] year after year. The buildings are also now in foreclosure. But over these many years, the tenants have stayed organized and diligent in your fight to preserve your homes.
Responding to that call, we are proud to announce today that HPD's Anti-Harassment Unit has secured a record-setting $31 million judgment, and as the mayor said, it is the largest judgment in HPD's history. This means that both the tenants and the city will now have significant leverage in what happens to the future of these buildings. We have already made our demands clear to Fannie Mae, who holds the mortgage on these buildings. First, we have insisted that they direct the receiver to immediately start making urgent repairs across the buildings. Second, we have called on Fannie Mae to sell these buildings to a responsible preservation buyer with the endorsement of both the tenants and the city. And finally, we will expect Fannie Mae to recognize the cost to fully renovate Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers as part of any future sale.
These properties were built decades ago as decent, safe and affordable communities. I want to express my admiration to the tenants, who for nearly 20 years have fought so hard to hold on to that promise. Today, we commit to ensuring that your vision will finally be realized. I want to thank the team at HPD's Anti-Harassment Unit, led by Marti Weithman, Paul Gdanski, Kevin Alexis and Eric Mora; the attorneys at Bronx Legal Aid and at Our Bronx, who stood with the tenants during this litigation; and of course, Mayor Mamdani, who continues to make the fight for housing justice a top priority across his administration. Thank you.
Director Cea Weaver, Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants: Thanks, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm now going to pass it over to tenant leader Ahshaki Long from Fordham Towers.
