This past Saturday, as the temperature dipped into the single digits, the residents at Hayes Court in Jackson Heights lost their heat and hot water. But there was no point in reaching out to their landlord or their property manager—both of them are on Rikers Island after being charged with stealing millions of dollars of federal COVID-19 relief money.
Their Landlord Was Sent to Rikers. The Heating Outages Continued: 'It Literally Cannot Get Worse Than This'
The residents of Hayes Court are taking the rare step of asking a housing court judge to appoint a new entity to manage their buildings—which have racked up 505 open housing violations for gas, heat and hot water outages, filthy common areas, and water leaks.
