TENANTS who are dropping thousands of dollars each month in rent are being forced to share their building with drug-addled intruders.
The terrified renters can’t leave their homes without fearing who is waiting for them in the hallways – and their landlord isn’t helping.
The residents who live in New York City are shelling out around $3,200 for cramped one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan’s Midtown neighborhood.
The location of this property is highly sought after due to its prime real estate, but its close proximity to the hectic area of Times Square has led to unwelcome individuals loitering in the building.
Reports from the New York City Police Department indicate that an individual lost their life near the residential complex situated on West 49th Street, and multiple arrests have been made for unauthorized entry.
Tenants claim the situation has gotten so bad that cops don’t even respond to their calls anymore.
“It’s living in prison,” resident Jason Burke told Gothamist.
“People are doing their drugs in the hall, standing in your way, looking at you like they are going to beat you up.”
Renters have reported declining conditions that could lure invaders, including missing locks and windows and poor buzzers.
Despite paying top dollars for the rooms, the building’s management company, Nieuw Amsterdam Management, hasn’t been cracking down on security.
The U.S. Sun contacted the company for updates on the situation but has yet to hear back.
Burke has been living in the building for eight years but said the squatter crisis ramped up around 2023.
Residents, including the individual being interviewed, have gathered a growing number of alarming photographs depicting individuals under the influence of drugs, unconscious in the corridors, vandalism on the walls with substances like blood or feces, and used syringes scattered on the floor.
Burke, who is a 55-year-old investor, said the apparently homeless people will bring food in the hallways to eat, throw it around, and then pass out for the night.
Another tenant in the building Zhanique Phyall, 26, said that a homeless person tried to cook in a vacant unit above her and started a fire.
Ever since the incident, she’s started working from home full-time because she’s scared someone will start camping out when she’s gone.
Unique Walker, who lives in a nearby building, said her sadness over the nightmarish situation has turned to rage.
She said that in December, she came home to find an unkempt man in her apartment and sleeping on her living room floor.
“We made eye contact. I said, ‘Listen, just get out. Just get out,'” she said.
“I’m done crying. I’m done shedding tears.”
After Walter complained to her landlord about the incident, they drilled screws above her windows so that no one could open them.
The District Attorney’s Office and the police department have both said they will help crack down on the horror, but that building management is ultimately in the hands of the landlord.
Deputy Inspector Robert Gault said, “Building owners have a responsibility to operate a safe building.
“We’re going to be bringing various agencies and holding them to account with some of these issues.”
