Two years after Daniel Ohebshalom was declared the city's worst landlord by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and despite Ohebshalom serving two 60-day stints at Rikers in 2024 after failing to do court-ordered repairs at two buildings he owns in Washington Heights, the beehive in the wall at 104 West 83rd Street is still there.
Not much has changed for renters in that building: In October, the ceiling in one tenant's bathroom collapsed, due to a water leak that also left her closet so full of mold that she had to leave her apartment for three days while repairs were done.
"I'm not sure they fixed the leak," she said in December, speaking in Spanish through a translator. (The tenant asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.)
At 705 and 709 West 170th Street, the two Washington Heights buildings that led to Ohebshalom becoming the only New York City landlord ever jailed for failing to make repairs, residents went a month without heat in November and early December 2024.
"Luckily," longtime resident Gilbert Butcher, 64, said, the heat came back on "right before the weather started getting really cold." On the other hand, he noted, the apartment above his hasn't had a human living there for more than 25 years. That apartment, and the one below him, are both inhabited by pigeons.
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