Dozens of renters in Passaic accuse landlord of poor conditions

PASSAIC, N.J. — A group of tenants in New Jersey are banding together to demand their landlord fix problems they say are plaguing their units.
Dozens of renters who say they’re from several buildings owned by one landlord, Alex Perez, took to the street and gathered at 919 Main Ave. in Passaic to say they’re forming a tenants’ union to make sure their voices are heard. They’re being represented by the group Make The Road New Jersey.
“The conditions in the apartments are very inhumane,” said Maria Montesinos, with the group.
The group took CBS News New York’s Christine Sloan inside the Main Avenue building, where she found unstable stairs and broken flooring.
One tenant allowed the group to take Sloan inside her unit, where there were cracks in tiles and holes in the wall.
“The wall is almost off … and mold growing,” the tenant said.
Outside, garbage cans with no covers and piles of trash were attracting bugs.
“You can smell the stench,” one person said.
“We are asking for Alex Perez to fix his conditions,” Montesinos said. “We’ve had hundreds of evictions in the past couple of years, and our immigrant Latino community cannot take it.”
Perez says concerns are being handled promptly and said, “It is unfortunate and entirely unnecessary that a few of our residents have targeted our company.” He added he’s confident his company will be “fully and completely exonerated.”
The mayor of Passaic says there are no open violations against the Main Avenue building but that over the past five years, there have been five violations and 30 complaints. He says the landlord has taken care of those issues.
“I’ve reached out to them, have stated that they have two open complaints right now for two apartments,” Mayor Hector Lora said.
The mayor says he’s confident the landlord will remediate.
“But I’ll be clear, there is no excuse for having people live in substandard conditions,” Lora said.
As for complaints, the mayor says tenants have to bring them to City Hall before they go to court for any rent non-payment. The mayor also says the city has a program to help tenants facing rent increases, but they have to qualify.