NYC, lawyer group helped tenants’ triumphant return to gleaming renovated Brooklyn building once infested with rats

Three families in Brooklyn made a life-changing move on Friday — back into their old apartment building, newly renovated and free of rats.

As movers bustled up and down the stairs heaving boxes and furniture, Ruth Acevedo stood in her sun-filled Bushwick kitchen, empty aside from several plants sitting on the stovetop ready to be placed around the apartment.

“We’re going to do everything new,” said Acevedo, 40. “We love the place.”

The tenants of 309 Menahan St. had lived in rat-filled, squalid conditions, some for up to 20 years. A complete renovation began this winter after the settlement of a pair of lawsuits brought by the tenants and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

A story in the Daily News a year ago led the city to act, said lawyer Emily Farrell of Mobilization for Justice, who represented the tenants in housing court.

Settlement discussions took six months, said Farrell, and included provisions that the tenants be moved to a different building while the work took place.

“This outcome is a really great example of what can be possible with tenants knowing their rights, being extremely organized and brave and having the enforcement arm of the HPD behind them,” said Farrell. “We would not see them today moving back into these beautiful apartments [otherwise].”

“These families had their homes restored and made safe so they can continue to live there with the dignity and respect they deserve — that’s why we come to work every day,” said housing Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr.

Before the renovation, Acevedo said, the building’s rat stench was so strong, she was forced to undergo sinus surgery in January. “I wore a mask to bed sometimes,” she said. “I had to cover my head with a blanket.”

The stench has been replaced by the smell of wood and fresh paint.

Hundreds of violations in the building have been fixed. Floors that were caving in have been repaired, new tiles have replaced the ones that were crumbling away, the dim hallways are now brightly lit.

When the rent-stabilized building was bought in August 2021 by a company called Menahan Fee Owner LLC, its remaining four households were told they had to move. Then, they were offered buyouts.

After the tenants sued, Housing Preservation and Development stepped in with a suit of its own. Then Menahan sold the building in June to the current owner, BlueSky Management NY, which oversaw the renovation work. The lawsuits were about to head to trial when settlement talks began.

BlueSky’s office was closed Friday, and company officials could not be reached.

The fourth family will move back in later this month, and all will retain their rent-stabilized status in the newly-renovated building.

The building’s previous and current owners also were made to jointly pay $60,000 in civil penalties, and each tenant in the lawsuit was awarded $17,500 from the current owner as part of the settlement, said Housing Preservation and Development.

“I’m very happy,” said tenant Evaristo Flores, 44, who lives with his wife, Veronica Vazquez, and their two children, a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. “I think all the tenants are very happy because we all got together and through our strength made this happen.”

The condition of Flores’ home was so bad that part of its floor was caving in.

“We had the worst bathroom in the building with holes in it,” he said.

Flores is happy with the renovation work. “Everything’s completely renovated. Everything will be just fine now,” he said.

Manuel Vazquez remembered his reaction when he saw the building after it was repaired: “Oh, wow!”

“It was very emotional because it all looked renovated compared to before when the apartments were horrible,” said Vazquez, who shares the home with his wife Gabriela and their 19-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son.

Vazquez said the biggest differences in the apartment are the new flooring and paint. He also likes the new kitchen cabinets.

The tenants of 309 Menahan St. plan a celebration when all of them are back together again in far better conditions than a year ago.

“Now we live like real people ,” said Acevedo.