NYC Sues Brooklyn Landlords Accused of Personally Evicting Tenants Amid Pandemic

The city of New York on Tuesday sued a pair of Brooklyn landlords accused of harassing and evicting tenants amid the coronavirus pandemic in violation of a series of laws, according to court documents.

New York Attorney General Letitia James also has an open investigation into the defendants, Gennaro Brooks-Church and Loretta Gendville, whose conduct over the summer sparked protests and, eventually, a profile in New York Magazine headlined “The Eco–Yogi Slumlords of Brooklyn.”

The Crown Heights row house owned by Brooks-Church and Gendville is legally a single-family residence, assistant corporation counsel Sherief Gaber wrote in the complaint, but the duo rented out rooms individually, as if the house were an SRO.

The pandemic left the house’s tenants unemployed and unable to pay rent, Gaber wrote. Brooks-Church repeatedly demanded the tenants pay the rent or move out, according to the complaint, and in July, the situation escalated.

“On July 2, defendant Brooks-Church showed up unannounced and forcibly entered the tenants’ rooms,” Gaber wrote. “Defendant Brooks-Church did not identify himself; for many of the tenants, this was the first time they had ever seen Brooks-Church in person and most of them did not know what he looked like. He yelled at the tenants that they needed to pay their rent.”

Four days later, Gendville showed up unannounced and walked into a tenant’s room while she was getting dressed, according to the complaint.

“Defendant Gendville yelled at the tenant, accusing her of being a squatter,” Gaber wrote. “Defendant Gendville grabbed the tenant by the wrists and pulled her into the hallway, where a verbal altercation ensued. Defendant Brooks-Church, two small children, an older child, and two maintenance workers were also in the hallway.”

The defendants then entered other tenants’ rooms and yelled at them, with Gendville threatening to throw away their possessions and call the police. Gendville and Brooks-Church started to move their own belongings into the house, and the maintenance workers changed the locks on the front doors.

In the following days, all the tenants left, “notwithstanding the difficulty of and potential risks of doing so during the pandemic,” Gaber wrote.

The city is seeking civil penalties in the suit, which was filed in cooperation with the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. The office was created by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2019 to coordinate the city’s tenant protection efforts.

“Home should be where you feel you can put your head on your pillow and rest easy. In a time of pandemic, it should be the place you feel most safe,” Corporation Counsel James E. Johnson said in a statement. “Today, we’re filing suit to ensure that safety and hold landlords accountable for their illegal and heartless acts. We have the tools to dismantle these egregious schemes and we will aggressively use them.”

Gendville and Brooks-Church did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.