Evicted woman’s hope Chasity Moran awaits judge’s decision to restore access to her Troy apartment./
OTroy ne night in mid- October, after a 12-hour shift as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home, Chasity Moran came home to the locks changed on her Troy apartment building.
Moran, 26, lost income after she was exposed to coronavirus through her son’s babysitter. She had to quarantine for several weeks, leaving her unable to come up with the $1,310 she owed for September’s rent for her Fourth Street apartment.
Local attorney Michael Ginsberg, the proprietor of Lambert Building Co. LLC — which owns 108 Fourth St. in Troy where Moran was residing — and the landlord of the property, said he gave her until Sept. 15 to provide the full payment. When nothing came in, he served Moran legal papers for “breach of contract,” requesting she pay the rest of the year’s lease — $13,100 — within three days, according to Ginsberg ’s responding court documents.
The lease included a clause stipulating that monthly payments were “for the convenience of the tenant” and would be revoked if a payment was missed.
“At that time, we had a discussion and she said she would have trouble paying October’s rent as well,” Ginsberg told Capitol Insider. “She was advised that she couldn’t just live in the apartment for free. At the end of the day she was going to owe all of the money for the rent.”
What happened next is in dispute: Ginsberg says Moran offered to vacate the apartment; Moran says she was under duress when she agreed to leave, unsure of what the legal document meant and shaken from Ginsberg threatening to call the police after he got into an argument with Moran’s friend. Ginsberg said he was concerned for both his and Moran’s safety.
“I wanted him to go, so I said, ‘OK, fine,’” Moran told Capitol Insider. “I just wanted him to leave because he was making me so nervous and he was drawing such negative attention to me.”
Now, Moran awaits a Troy City Court judge’s decision on whether to restore her access to the Fourth Street apartment and award her compensatory damages, legal fees and civil penalties against Ginsberg for an illegal lockout, a violation of Section 768 Unlawful Eviction in the state Real Property Actions & Proceedings.
Despite a statewide eviction moratorium, affordable housing advocates and renters say eviction proceedings have resumed and landlords are pursuing other routes to encourage tenants to leave, like turning off utilities, changing the locks and other harassing behavior.
Concerns of a national housing crisis have been bubbling for months since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses, sickened the most vulnerable communities and placed millions on unemployment. Advocates argue that people should not be left homeless during a global public health crisis, and have pointed to the importance of keeping New Yorkers in their homes to stop the spread of COVID -19.
Ginsberg says the landlordtenant dispute has nothing to do with COVID -19, and Moran could have remained in the apartment. He said Moran never indicated that she wanted to stay, only that she needed more time to move, and the state in which the apartment was left indicated she had vacated.
Dirty dishes piled in the sink had attracted fruit flies, yams had become moldy in the fridge, and household items were partially packed or strewn about the apartment, Ginsberg said. He provided photos that he said were taken Sept. 30 and Oct. 8 of the apartment’s condition.
“When I went to look at the apartment it was in an uninhabitable condition,” he said. “There was no indication that anyone had been living there, and during that time period, she had access to the apartment. She had the keys.”
Moran, who has a 3-year-old son, had texted Ginsberg on Sept. 29 notifying him that she would be unable to vacate the apartment in the time frame he wanted. He responded in a text:
“You told me the date you would be out. You need to be out,” according to a text message exchange between the two included in court documents.
“You asked me if I would be leaving after you threatened to call the cops for a domestic dispute. I got nervous & agreed,” Moran responded via text.
“I’m not going to play this game with you,” Ginsberg replied, according to
court records.
The local attorney and landlord told Capitol Insider that Moran could have set up a payment plan with him, as he did with another tenant in the building, but she “never opened the line of discussion about that.”
Moran says on Oct. 8 she reached out to Ginsberg to provide a partial payment, but he never responded.
By Oct. 11, Moran was locked out of the apartment building and left with few options for safe
housing. Members of her family live on Long Island and in the Dominican Republic. She moved to the Capital Region to attend Hudson Valley Community College and pursue a nursing career.
Meanwhile, the dispute continues to play out in court, leaving Moran couch-surfing at friends’ homes in the Capital Region.
“I kind of bounce back from two different houses currently because my son is a handful,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have
patience for him, so I try not to stay at one place too long.”
Moran, with the help of attorney Matt Toporowski, is seeking in the court case to regain access to the Troy apartment and recuperate legal costs as well as the costs associated with damaged personal belongings.
State legislators are scheduled to return to Albany on Monday for a special session to expand and extend the statewide eviction moratorium. New York also recently
adjusted the eligibility criteria for rental assistance. Whether these measures could impact Moran’s situation is unclear.
Ginsberg said the claim of an illegal eviction is an attempt to “cast the landlord as (a) villain” and has nothing to do with the need for housing.
“This isn’t about the apartment. This is about an attempt to get money,” he said. “If she wanted the apartment, she would have been in there in October.”