As reported in SHADOW #34, on October 12, 1994, the East 13th Homesteaders Coalition, which comprises five buildings on East 13th Street, obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) through State Supreme Court Judge Elliott Wilk. Repre-sented by attorney Jackie Bukowski, the coalition is seeking a permanent injunction against Lower East Side Coalition Housing Development (LESCHD), a housing group controlled by councilman Pagan. LESCHD has been trying to take the five buildings with help from the city, claiming they are vacant and are a "blighting influence" on the neighborhood. LESCHD plans to convert the buildings into "low-income" housing that would revert to market rate housing in fifteen years. The TRO prevents the city from taking any action toward evicting the buildings without "due process."
Taking a calculated risk, the coalition allowed various city agencies to inspect the public areas of their buildings. To ensure against a double-cross, the homesteaders requested that Judge Wilk attend the inspections.
On November 22, officials from the Fire and Buildings Departments, Housing Pre-servation and Development (HPD) engineers, Pagan's reps from LESCHD, LESCHD's contractors, members of the Corporation Counsel (the city's in-house lawyers) and De-puty Inspector Richard Seta of the ninth precinct, were escorted through the buildings. After Wilk left, the city's lawyers attempted to obtain a vacate order, alleging "unsafe" conditions found at one of the buildings (one joist in a basement was sagging -- this was immediately replaced after the inspections). The cops present told HPD they would not attempt an eviction since it was not in the scope of Wilk's order to inspect the buildings.
Despite concerns of some squatters that the inspections were a ruse to force mass evictions, the cops were cool, though they had back-ups of riot cops and "emergency service" vehicles only a few blocks away. (The SHADOW learned that the city tried to induce Deputy Inspector Seta to sign an affadavit alleging that the homesteaders posed a threat to the safety of police and that he supported their removal. Seta refused.)
Shortly before xmas, city lawyers made a motion for Judge Wilk to decide the case expeditiously on the grounds that the coalition's case had no merits. The city claimed that the homesteaders came to court with "dirty hands" as trespassers and that they had no case. Judge Wilk said he would give them an answer sometime in January.
Also present in court that day were two members of one of the buildings (535 East 13th St.). The men, known as "Butch" Johnson and John ("The Communist") Potak, have been trying since last October to sabotage the coalition's case against the city. Be-side spreading disinformation to convince squatters that the suit will cause the evictions of the squats, Johnson and Potak have also mounted a smear campaign against those involved in the suit, claiming they are police agents and working for the city.
Interestingly, Johnson was seen sitting with LESCHD members in the courtroom, ex-changing telephone numbers as they whispered in his ear. Persons attending the hearing told the SHADOW that they saw Johnson earlier giving the court clerk a package which he said contained "a cassette tape." Strangely, a cassette tape recording of a squatter Eviction Watch meeting was stolen by Potak, who then issued posters and leaflets publicly exposing squatter defense strategies discussed at the meeting.
At an earlier court date, Johnson and Potak attempted to have their building re-moved from the collective suit. According to SHADOW sources, when representatives from HPD told Judge Wilk that they were offering Johnson and Potak city apartments in exchange for removing their building from the suit, Johnson said, "Yes, that's what we want." When questioned by the SHADOW, Johnson claimed "everyone was offered free apartments." Other residents of the 13th Street buildings told the SHADOW that this is a lie.
Later, when the homesteaders received the city's response papers to their suit, they discovered a letter written by Johnson, alleging that the parties to the suit against the city do not live in the buildings. The city, with no strong argument against the home-steaders, has used Johnson's letter to bolster its case against them.
On February 6, the city requested another inspection of one of the buildings, located at 545 East 13th Street. City lawyers claimed that they were concerned about a bow in the brickwork on the side of the building. The residents had already installed an archi-tectural bracing structure to stabilize it. They allowed one rep from HPD and one engineer to inspect the brickwork, and the inspectors agreed that the bracing was good. The city then had a wooden canopy installed for further safety. This was accepted by the homesteaders, who planned to have one erected anyway for future work on the building.
On February 10, Judge Wilk denied the city's motion and again extended the TRO. He then requested an evidenciary hearing, setting March 13 as the date on which daily hearings will begin. Judge Wilk also questioned the city's allowing abandonment for so many years, and he asked why the city has been holding housing stock. HPD reps admitted that HPD administers 2,000 buildings with a total of 20,000 units. (SHADOW sources believe the numbers are much higher.) They told Judge Wilk that their true fear is that if the homesteaders succeed, a "land rush" will be created.
Beside thwarting the city's attempts to evict them, the homesteaders can now use the evidenciary hearing to question high ranking city officials responsible for housing policies for the past 15 years. The case can be used to present a factual record of how and why people have became homesteaders.
City lawyers left the courtroom agreeing to the date of the new hearing and not challenging the extension of the TRO. Six hours later, Carol Sellers of the Corporation Counsel called Ms. Bukowski to say that the city will invoke an automatic stay. Sellers refused to say when they would do this, telling Ms. Bukowski that they are only legally required to mail notice to the parties of the suit. Sellers also said that the case is now out of her hands and is being handled by other city attorneys. As the SHADOW goes to press, there is no indication that the city has stayed the TRO. Ms. Bukowski, who checks daily to see if it has been stayed, sees no difficulty in vacating it.
Ms. Bukowski told the SHADOW that the city's right of automatic stay "is only to be used as a shield, not a sword. It is meant to preserve the status quo, which in this case is people living in their homes; not to be used by a loser to do with impunity what he would have done if he had won the lawsuit," she explained. If the TRO is stayed by the city, the plaintiffs will then go to the Appellate Court to overturn it. Even so, the evidenciary hearing will take place as scheduled in front of Judge Wilk on March 13 at 60 Centre Street.
***** Wilk, who was re-elected to a new eight year term last November, has little to fear in political fall-out from ruling against the city. As reported in #34, Wilk was well known as a Housing Court judge in the 1970s and 80s who generally ruled in favor of tenants over landlords. In 1980, a group of landlords unsuccessfully lobbied to remove him from the bench. Wilk can now use the current case to highlight failed city housing policies, not just as a victory for squatters. **** Despite efforts by LESCHD and HPD to cut deals with several residents of the 13th Street squats to sabotage the legal efforts against the city and Pagan's group by denouncing fellow squatters, spreading disinformation and passing information to the defendants, the lawsuit has surpassed everyone's expectations.
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