Evictions of Illegal Loft Dwellers in Queens

More than 200 people found themselves homeless last night after they were evicted from an enormous industrial building at 17-17 Troutman St. in the Ridgewood section of Queens, with Bushwick, Brooklyn just across the street. The loft residents were told to leave by the Department of Buildings and signs were posted saying that the building was "imminently perilous to life."

Fire and building inspectors also cited numerous violations in the fire code and evidence of building work done without proper permits. The 25-foot-ceilinged lofts, according to the Daily News, go for $1,500-3,500 and we spoke to one person who told us that the space was subdivided back in August 2003. The building is apparently zoned for commercial use, and since the loft conversions (between 60 and 70 of them) were done illegally, the DOB says that the space will have to be converted back to its raw condition.

The newly homeless were allowed to take what they could by the end of the day and the Red Cross was on hand to find them temporary shelter at area hotels and motels. Officials have scheduled times for former occupants to retrieve the rest of their belongings.

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By Dave Hogarty in News on October 19, 2007 6:05 PM

Comments [rss]

kwonton

If you look on the DOB website, you can enter in the address and it will show you all the violations and complaints lodged against the building/landlord. To date, 17-17 has 26 complaints and over 20 violations to the DOB and ECB.

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=4&houseno=17-17&street=Troutman&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E

rubytuesday

Thanks everyone for the info on this. I live in another of the buildings owned by gladiator reality corps... does anyone know how I could find out about whether there are any safety violations etc connected to this building?

shernsco1

armchair warrior: thank you!!

Jlawsoul

I am/was a resident of this building. And I cannot stress enough how much of a nightmare the last 24 hours have been for me and the 220+ other residents. And no, we were not living on "borrowed time." I had no idea that anything like this could ever happen. There are hundreds of lofts like this all over the city. Ours was just made an ultimate example.

The city handled this horribly. I just got home from work at 9:15 and was notified that I did not have home as of 10pm.

And I take a lof of offense to the previous comment: "I bet they all claimed to live in Williamsburg."

No, nobody claimed to live in Williamsburg. Most residents would prefer not to live in a suer gentrified stoller land with high price tags. I loved my neighborhood of Bushwick/Ridgewood and am terribly sad about the sudden eviction.

i'm emotionally exhausted and homeless.

for former tenants, there is a an online forum i encourage everyone to register for so we can keep in touch about any future actions we may be taking against the owners.

http://1717troutman.hypermediative.net/

also my roommate has a site with a couple of the documents we received

http://futurestack.com/eviction/

chris

I hope they can fight this and win, but it needs to be said: I bet they all claimed to live in Williamsburg.

Kevin Bracken

Isn't there a state law that makes living in buildings like this legal? And wasn't it recently renewed?

With a housing crisis in the city, as well as an artist-unfriendly condition developing, buildings like this should be more numerous, not less.

GirlsPantsAreForGirls

Long story short, the owner withheld the eviction notifications from all of the tenants. Most did not know it was a completely illegal building having signed leases. It was zoned for light industrial and apparently the same thing happened back in 2005 but the DOH and health inspectors signed off on it eventually.

I think living on borrowed time is a harsh comment. No one was expecting to be evicted and all the tenants were generally artists who loved the space and freedom. Very few had actually experienced the same thing previously.

Having recently been evicted from this place, I can say that its anything but easy. The authorities were completely unsympathetic and pushed our frustration back on to the owner who no one could find. If anything, they should have actively put up notices concerning this property rather than given no more than 24 hours notice that something was wrong with 1717 troutman. They also actively went into peoples apartments without permission.

All and all, it was a huge cluster fuck and I learned that there are too many dicks working in the Department of Housing

Gringcorp

Those guys have been living on borrowed time for a while. I was taking a stroll around the gardens of the awesome gallery/museum/historical space the Vanderender Onderdonk house (top right of the picture) this time last year and they were yelling at anyone who came near to see if they were from the city. The curator of the house tried to convince them he was a like-minded artist, but they weren't very friendly. Still, living under the threat of eviction must be very stressful. Good luck to them.

shernsco1

CALL FOR INFORMATION ***

If anyone has any information regarding the whereabouts of the landlord, the company, any information about who owns this place, please go to the cops or buildings dept with it.

There are 200 people now homeless. My good friend is one such case. She's lived there for two years, and put like $2k of her own money into her studio space to make improvements. She, like most of the tenants, is an artist who is now out of a lot of sorely needed money and who did nothing to deserve this. We need to help her and all of them recover as much as we can from the scumbag landlord if that's at all possible!