New York City's worst-case scenario collided in a Brooklyn block when drug-addled squatters rented out an abandoned building to immigrants, who then started a devastating blaze that destroyed two adjacent homes after dozens of bikes and scooters they apparently stole, The Washington Post has learned.
But even a devastating fire on Aug. 17 couldn't evict the squatters from their home on East 36th Street in Marine Park.
“For the next two days, people kept coming back,” a 45-year-old neighbor told The Washington Post, even after the city boarded up second-floor windows and poured cement over the doors and windows on the first floor.
Neighbors estimated that the dilapidated two-story, three-bedroom duplex, built in 1925, was frequented by about 10 drug users and an unknown number of illegal immigrants.
“They were fighting with the neighbors, yelling, 'This is our house! This is our house!'” one resident on the block recalled, adding that in the days after the fire he called police every time he saw them.
The fire, which began at about 1.30pm due to an explosion of an electronic battery, required 106 firefighters to extinguish the blaze, injuring three people with smoke inhalation. The flames quickly spread to homes on either side, forcing the evacuation of at least six people.
The abandoned building has plagued the quiet neighborhood since its 81-year-old owner, Mortimer Falk, died without any relatives in 2011. The Brooklyn Borough Superintendent manages the property and assets.
“We've been trying for years to draw people's and authorities' attention to this, but no one has paid attention,” lamented a 45-year-old local resident.
The home is valued at $729,300, according to Zillow.com. Calls to the administrator were not returned.
Neighbors said the house had a succession of drug addicts and freeloaders living there.
“When I come home alone at night, there are about four strange men sitting in my front yard, and I don't know who they are, and it scares me,” a teenage girl who lives across the street told The Washington Post.
“The migrants are the first newcomers here since Floyd Bennett Field,” said one nearby resident, who asked not to be named out of fear for his safety, referring to a massive 2,000-bed shelter in a national park five miles away.
“They started with 10 drug users, then they brought in migrants and charged them $600 a month to stay. Where are they getting that money? It's robbery.”
So far this year, the 63rd Precinct has seen a 12% increase in robberies, from 72 to 81.
Moshe Kabaso, 32, and his wife, Lurie, 27, had been sharing a wall with the squatter since 2021, but were forced to leave with their three young children after the city issued an eviction order for them from the property after the fire.
“Since we moved here, strangers have been coming and going, and it's gotten worse in the last few months,” Cabasso said. “The kids would cry every time they saw them, just the way they looked and the way they spoke.”
He said one woman was heard yelling about drugs, “I need shit! I need shit!”
He once heard a man banging on his door, screaming, “Give me your money! I'm going to kill you!”
His wife said she had repeatedly spotted the squatters smoking what appeared to be a crack pipe on the porch.
“From the moment we moved in we could hear them screaming and fighting at all hours of the night – it's absolutely horrible,” she said.
According to city data, as of Aug. 30 of this year, 18 complaints had been made to the city's 311 hotline about the squatters.
An NYPD spokesman said officers have been dispatched to the home 15 times in the past two weeks alone, including one burglary in progress, one theft in progress, one disorderly group incident and 12 other incidents.
On Aug. 15, police arrested three people outside the home while they were sitting inside a vehicle that had been stolen in the area on July 25. The three were charged with auto theft, possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance.
Police arrested a different vehicle thief at the same address on Aug. 18 and charged him with grand theft of a motor vehicle and possession of stolen property.
An NYPD spokesman said the 63rd Precinct commander “continues to be in contact with residents regarding complaints of trespass at the location” and that the precinct has increased patrols on the block.
This week, The Washington Post saw at least seven scooters and e-bikes, broken glass, scorched clothing, propane gas tanks and wood strewn across the home's alley and yard. A half-burned mattress had somehow ended up on the roof of a neighbor's house, whose windows were also boarded up due to fire damage.
Video taken by a brave neighbour inside the squatter's home after the fire shows a chaotic scene with messy beds, broken furniture, bizarre scrawls of names and phone numbers on the walls and rubbish strewn everywhere.
Curtis Suriawa, founder of Guardian Angels and Republican mayoral candidate, said the unrest could lead to residents being forced out.
“This is going to lead to people putting up for sale signs and walking away,” he said. “We can't afford that.”
Residents continue to worry that the squatters will return.
“We're worried they'll come back here again,” one neighbour said.
City Councillor Mercedes Narcisse said her office was first contacted on the day of the fire about “ongoing and serious issues with squatters and drug activity” on the property.
“More must be done to protect our communities from the dangers posed by abandoned properties, and I strongly support the need for stronger state laws to enable communities and homeowners to effectively address the problem of squatters,” she said.
A mayoral spokesman said, “I will review our squatter laws and work with City Council to find ways to resolve this issue to protect homeowners across the city, especially working class New Yorkers.”
