The winter blues have hit Harlem Councilwoman Inez Dickens.
Not only did rival East Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito crush her hopes of becoming City Council Speaker Wednesday, but tenants living in the apartment buildings she co-owns with her family have waged a nasty rent strike.
Also on the list of Dickens’ woes: Ethics experts question whether the veteran pol under-reported her earnings as a landlord on city Conflicts of Interest Board forms.
Residents living above Dickens’ campaign office, which shares space with the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Club, gripe that the five-story walk-up is often without heat. And despite the bone-chilling temperatures, squatters have taken over an unlocked vacant flat on the third-floor.
“I haven’t paid my rent in two months,” said Syran Brantley, 48, who has refused to pony up her $880 monthly fee for her two-bedroom home at 2155 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. since November. “There’s no heat. There’s garbage everywhere.”
Brantley’s grievances prompted the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to probe her cold apartment last week.
The agency also sent out inspectors to Dickens’ other properties – 2153 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. and 187 Lenox Ave – once on Dec. 26 and again on Jan. 1 in response to heat and hot water complaints, a department spokesman said.
“She leaves us in the cold,” said Adam Hamazh, 19, who lives with his family inside a top-floor flat at 2153 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. “She’s a crappy landlord. We are looking to leave. We can’t stay here.”
Dickens’ properties, which she inherited from her late father, former Harlem Assemblyman Lloyd Dickens, is managed by her sister Delores Richards – named one of Manhattan’s most negligent landlords in 2013 by then Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
The 64-year-old elected official has listed herself as part owner of the properties in her annual financial filings with the Conflicts of Interest Board, but noted earning a mere $1,000 or less worth of income.
“It defies reason,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for New York Public Interest Research Group. “It’s hard to believe she isn’t getting any income from buildings she co-owns with her sister.”
Dickens’ spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment.
But Citizen’s Union executive director Dick Dadey, a government watchdog, urged the city Conflicts of Interest Board to comb through Dickens’ files.
“Transparency is essential,” Dadey said. “It’s troubling not to see this outside income being reported. It’s absence from the forms raises questions why this information is being kept from the public.”
