1519 Dekalb Avenue,

Brooklyn, NY 11237

Beautiful brick walls, cool renovations

The aesthetic appeal to this building is a large smoke and mirror. Behind this facade is poorly finished insulation that allows you to hear those next to and above you verbatim in normal conversation, completely eliminating privacy.

Living here was an absolute nightmare for my family as the conversations we heard every single day, were homophobic and threatening slurs slung our way (we’re a queer couple) laden with obscenities.

The tenant on the second floor feeds 10-15 stray cats daily, throws meat out of the second story window into the shared backyard every single evening, leaving it to rot in the morning sun come summer months. We accumulated hundreds of pictures of the cat feces, bugs, and other excrement that lives in the backyard because of this.

In our one year of tenancy, our unit was infected with and treated for bedbugs over 4 times, our neighbors 5-6. Additionally, we were treated for rodents and other bugs (roaches) every single month because the issue is chronic in this building and has remained unfixed.

We lived here for one year, and when we ended our lease, three other units also vacated the premises because of these issues and the utter lack of attention from the landlord.

We contacted our landlord multiple times seeking negotiation or any help for our consistent harassment from their long-standing tenant, and received absolutely no return communication for FIVE MONTHS despite our pleas.

I would not recommend this building to my worst enemy.

You owe it to our community and to other HUMANS, to respond and accurately portray, or address the issues in this building. Operating out of greed to receive money that does not reflect the worth of this living experience is deplorable.