Home by Kristen Clark
Michelle and her two sons have been limping by in their ruined home—an apartment with no daylight, no running water and no toilet—for nearly a year. Follow one morning in their long fight to remain in their rent-stabilized apartment.
We used to wake up to daylight. Early in the morning. Bright daylight coming in through the windows. We don’t have that anymore
My landlord came into this building. He was gonna renovate our kitchen and bathroom. So we trusted him. But that wasn’t the case. he tricked us, her destroyed our kitchen and bathroom just to try to force us out, and charge triple or four times the amount of rent.
I didn’t even want my kids to see it. I didn’t want them to see how it looked. Cause I’m like, if I feel this bad, I didn’t want them to see.
(You can see right through the basement. And this here’s what once upon a time used to be my bathroom)
(Daylight. So much of it…)
It’s been ten months already. We have to go upstairs, use somebody else’s bathroom. We don’t have water downstairs Obviously so we take empty gallons of water and fill it up.
Mike. (knocks) Yes? Are you okay in there?
10 months now. 10 sucky months. Right David?
It’s not about being lazy. It’s about going into someone else’s apartment. It’s not your own space, you know?
I know baby. But this won’t be for long OK? I told you that.
You feel hopeless sometimes, you know? I hate the fact that my kids have to go through this.
This is the kitchen-slash-living room. cause this is what the living room was before the landlord destroyed our kitchen and bathroom.
There’s no chocolate chip today. I know.
I miss baking so much. It’s part of being a mom. Tou just want to do stuff for your kids.
You shouldn’t give up. People give up so quickly. I mean, we still have a roof over our heads. We still have food in our stomaches.
I don’t know, just… Keep fighting. Let your voice be heard and let them know this is not the right way to live.
Enjoy boys. See? Not so bad.
Their apartment has no running water and no toilet. They cook with an electric stove in what used to be their living room, and every morning they gather their towels, tooth brushes, empty water gallons and a bucket, and trek upstairs to a neighbor’s apartment—to use a bathroom that’s now shared by a total of 14 people.
Michelle’s family has lived in their Bushwick apartment for 24 years. As a result, the family pays less than $800 per month, in a neighborhood where market rate apartments nearby have soared to as much as three times that. In June last year, the family’s landlord sealed off the kitchens and bathrooms on the bottom floor of 98 Linden Street, saying that he needed to do some repairs. Soon after, says Michelle, two men showed up with chainsaws and sledgehammers. Only two hours later, her apartment had been utterly demolished.
The destruction at 98 Linden Street in Bushwick is one of the most egregious examples of a worrying new trend. Local activists and politicians say that in New York City’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, they’ve seen a noticeable uptick in landlords destroying their own properties in an effort to force out long-time, rent-regulated tenants.
Local politicians are now calling to designate acts of sabotage against rent-regulated tenants a Class D felony—but for Michelle, that legislation will come too late. Her only recourse is a long battle in court to remain in her home.
“It’s just patience,” says Michelle. “This whole thing is just patience. Waiting around for the city to do something, and not giving up. Cause we’re not giving up, at all.”
