Child Molesters, Terrorists And Slum Lords
Do slumlords get the fabled child-molester treatment in jail? A Brooklyn slumlord soon will find out when he spends 12 days locked up:
Posted: April 19th, 2006 | Filed under: Huzzah!In an extremely rare penalty for a landlord, Olufemi Falade will be sent to the slammer for failing to repair hundreds of violations in his buildings — including vermin infestations, exposed wires and leaking pipes — the city announced yesterday outside one of his violation-laden properties in Flatbush.
“In just 12 buildings he owns, there are more than 1,800 violations of the city’s housing and maintenance codes,” said Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan.
“This owner is perhaps one of the most egregious examples we’ve seen citywide of flouting the law and forcing his residents to live in horrible conditions.”
And when the commissioner announced the jail time — adding that Falade is one of only four landlords locked up for refusing to correct building violations in the last three years — tenants who pay upward of $700 a month for their one-bedroom apartments broke into applause.
“We have to live a whole winter with no hot water,” fumed former tenant Victoria Rivera, 25, who left her mother’s apartment in the 27-unit building last August. “We have to look up . . . and see broken ceilings — bathrooms not running.”
Her mother, Evelyn, who still lives in the building, added, “He deserves every bit of what he gets.”