Exclusive | NYC tenants fume over landlords secret deal to move homeless and ex-cons into building
It’s a nightmare on West 83rd street!Residents of an Upper West Side building said they are “living in fear” after their landlord struck a secretive deal to move homeless and ex-cons into their quiet working-class complex.Members of the tenants association at 126 W.86th St.
said they were blindsided by the building’s agreement with the city that allows up to 30% of the 72-unit rent-stabilized units to be filled with hard-to-place adults – including active drug users and mentally ill individuals straight from the shelter system. “We don’t want to be a shelter.We don’t want to be program housing,” one disgruntled resident told The Post. The traumatized tenants are still reeling from the 2023 murder of their neighbor, 74-year-old Maria Hernandez — who was brutally killed by the complex’s ex-convict superintendent who was hired without a background check. Now they’re facing a new nightmare – as the city is filling the building’s vacant apartments with unsupervised placements from Mayor Zohran Mamdani-backed programs like The Fortune Society – without providing on-site social workers or oversight. “It is not an exaggeration to say that many tenants are living in fear for their safety,” the Tenant Association said in a statement.Six tenants interviewed by The Post — all of whom refused to be named over fear of retaliation or losing their homes — said open-air drug use, trespassing and suspected prostitution are part of their daily lives. Pungent fumes from crack cocaine and meth billow through the vents and unstable residents routinely scream obscenities at all hours of the night, multiple tenants claimed. One of the placements has been arrested three times since moving into the building in 2024 – including twice for stabbings, tenants claimed.“Tenant association officials insist that most, if not all, of the placements require supportive services and supervision, and should not be living independently in a rent-stabiliz...