The scion of one of New York’s most notorious slumlord families has been accused of “callous and inhumane” management by the tenants of his Upper West Side apartment complex. It comes just days after a family member was charged with lewd harassment of a tenant.
Residents of 515 Cathedral Parkway believe that landlord Fred Oheshalom has inadvertently let the building fall into dangerous disrepair and even tried to evict long-regulated tenants in order to raise rents and cash in. ing.
“I don’t know where to start,” said Roger Rubin, 56, a longtime tenant of more than 30 years, of all the things he’s seen since Ohe Shalom bought the building nearly 20 years ago. He said while trying to remember.
“They forced a lot of people to flee,” Rubin told the Post.
Tenants say recent problems include severe flooding in December that destroyed many apartments, the 12-story building’s elevators regularly breaking down for eight months, and gas outages in half of the building. Among other things, the incident lasted for 15 months. They are left to cook on a camp stove they bought with their own money.
“He made it very clear that he couldn’t say too much crap about us,” said one lifelong resident, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from management. Management claimed to have used “intimidation tactics” to intimidate tenants.
Daniel Orbushalom, a relative of Ohebshalom and the Big Apple’s so-called “worst landlord,” was jailed in March after committing more than 700 public violations in his buildings. He is the head of a large family that owns numerous residential buildings in the city.
Horrifying stories about his management style date back decades, including allegations that he threatened tenants with poor living conditions until they were evicted — leading to him changing direction. They say they are trying to convert their apartments into multi-bedroom units and jack up the rent.
“He has certainly tried to evict us,” said Patti Anders, who has lived at 515 Cathedral Parkway for about 40 years. “It was like a nightmare.
“What happened over the years was that some of the rent-stabilized tenants moved out,” Anders said. Mr. Anders has twice sued Mr. Oheshalom’s management company, Empire Management, after allegedly fighting “tooth and tooth” with Mr. Oheshalom to deal with the endless leaks. As a result, her unit was left in a state of disrepair for many years. She insists that she is far from alone in these conflicts.
“They’re all going through the same thing as me. – That said, they never answer your calls and don’t get back to you about anything. They never let anyone know what they were or weren’t doing.
“After they leave, we renovate it and bring in more people,” Anders said.
Last year, the city hit Ohe Shalom with a lawsuit over 300 violations that 515 Cathedral Parkway had accumulated from the Department of Buildings, FDNY and other agencies.
“Defendants allowed the building to deteriorate to the point that it posed an imminent threat to the health and safety of the tenants and the public,” the complaint states. “These buildings and the conditions within them are a public nuisance and violate city laws designed to protect tenants and protect buildings.
“If the above situation continues unmitigated, the potential for harm to residents, passersby and the general public is inevitable,” it added.
The lawsuit was settled in October for about $1.25 million, with management agreeing to make repairs to resolve outstanding violations under close city supervision.
A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Justice told the Post: “We are closely monitoring Empire’s compliance with the settlement and will take further legal action as necessary to ensure compliance.”
Despite the settlement, residents continue to claim Ohebshalom is still neglecting the building. – Especially after the floods that occurred just two months later.
“You can’t even imagine it. It should be in a movie somewhere,” said the anonymous resident’s mother, who also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from management.
The family lives on the upper floor of a rent-stabilized apartment, but when heavy rains hit the city on December 18, they found their longtime home flooded with water pouring through the ceiling. discovered. – They said this caused damage to thousands of personal properties.
Columbia University roommates Sahar Paz, 21, and Eli Mizrahi, 19, said the “waterfall” that night left their apartment “uninhabitable” for two months.
When the building was finally repaired, the roommates claimed that shoddy contractors had neglected to allow the damage to dry thoroughly before painting over it. –This leads to mold growth in the apartment.
Such poor maintenance comes cheap – Band-Aid later caused more problems – was a common complaint from residents.
“They’re not really interested in being more or less a good landlord or a good person,” Paz says. “They treat us like we’re free. If we complain, we can leave and they’ll just replace us with new naive college students who can take advantage of us.”
When gas was shut off for more than a year during the pandemic, tenants were notified with a piece of paper taped to their door that said “No Gas” and were given no further information for months. said.
Management announced that they would eventually install electric stoves. – But the anonymous family said they started by placing them in spare rooms rather than in apartments where stable residents were cooking on hot plates.
“They don’t buy anything unless it’s broken in someone’s rent-stabilized apartment,” said Carolyn Burden, a tenant in her late 80s who has lived at 515 since the 1970s and filed a lawsuit against Ohe Shalom. ” he said. She forces him to make repairs.
“They did everything cheaply. They destroyed beautiful, beautiful buildings.”
Like others, Baden feels that management has been trying to force her out of her apartment for years, changing it to accommodate as many bedrooms as possible after the other rooms were emptied. He claimed to have seen it happen firsthand.
“My doctor says my blood pressure is probably high because of this,” Baden said. “It was a really heavy burden.”
Management once tried to oust Rubin. – traveling sports reporter – After tracing the address the rent checks were sent from, he claimed he never called the apartment his primary residence.
Rubin said the situation is leading to an exodus of rent-stabilized tenants. He estimated that there were about 70 houses when he moved in 1992, but now only about 20 remain.
“That’s what they want: high turnover,” Rubin said. “It’s about getting as much money out of the building as possible.”
The anonymous tenants had hoped to keep the apartment occupied by their family for years to come, but feared the current situation would make it impossible for them to continue their battle with the landlord.
“This is the place my parents wanted to share with us,” the son said through tears. “But from the looks of it, – Of course we’re still here, but it’s a tough battle to fight when we’re not from a lot of people. ”
Ohebshalom’s company, Empire Management, told the Post it had “no knowledge” of tenant harassment and said it was “working hard to minimize the impact on residents while completing an extensive maintenance and remediation program.” We are working on it,” he said.
“Over the past several years, ownership has invested significant resources in this building to significantly reduce occasional violations and resolve tenant complaints.”
