Five tenants at 299 Troutman St, a private eight-family building in Bushwick, are filing a civil lawsuit against their landlords, Xing Liang Shen and Irene Zhang, citing severe neglect in the conditions of living spaces.
In 2008, a fire completely destroyed two units atop the three-story building. Yet, 11 years later, the charred units remain seemingly untouched and altogether neglected. Though the landlord seeks to hide these units, once beyond the boarded doors, a musty odor grows, leading you around a naked bed frame, and down the narrow hall into a pink-walled family room––missing parts of the ceilings and walls, with a small photograph of a child on the floor, partly buried by ash.
Hector and Maria Cordero, brother and sister, have been living on the ground floor with rent-controlled units for 25 years, In the last decade they have been suffering from rotting walls, and severe leakage, that stem from the lack of repairs to the fire damage above them.
