The city announced today that Hamid Khan, the landlord of 1055 University Ave-- a building in Highbridge that currently has more than 2200 Maintenance Code violations --has been sentenced to nine days in jail for criminal contempt. The sentence was announced today by Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the city's department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
Khan's sentence marks the first time in two years that a building owner or managing agent has gone to jail in a case brought by HPD. (In February of 2006, Olufemi Falade was sentenced to jail for failure to make repairs at apartments he managed in Brooklyn).
Living conditions at the 94-unit, six-story structure at 1055 University Ave are among the worst in New York City. Tenants there have long struggled with collapsed ceilings, massive water leaks, damaged walls and doors, non-functioning toilets, lack of hot and cold water, extensive mold, and broken stairs, to name just a few massive problems.
The Highbridge Horizon first reported on conditions at the building in April of 2007.
Also, check out the stories from our May , June , August, and September issues.
HPD first took Khan to court in the fall of 2006. The court ordered him to correct the violations in October of that year, but by April of 2007, the number of violations had grown substantially. The case went to trial in July of 2007 and lasted nearly six months. Khan was sentenced on January 28.
Last fall, Khan's attorney Howard Fritz told the Horizon that the shareholders of Highbridge Apartments LLC had removed his client from day-to-day operations of 1055 University Ave in an effort to appease HPD. Indeed, the HPD Web site currently lists Juan Martinez -- not Hamid Khan-- as the owner of the building.
However, as our September 2007 article explored, the degree to which Khan may have remained involved in the building was unclear.
As part of their sentence, Khan and Highbridge Apartments LLC were also ordered to pay $156,000 in fines.
jail time for slumlords is not good enough the taxpayers are covering his stay, no he should be forced to live in the same nasty apartments and be subject to the horrible living conditions as the tennats and let the tenants live in his expense home for a year .
ReplyDeleteI lived in those apartments for 9 years back in 1988 my family finally movd out i gre up in that horrible buulding they should condem those apartments and rebuild 1055 the living conditions were the same when i grew up at 1055 an we had a landlord mr gomez which was the same way what a shame. they should keep him in jail.
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