Evening Roundup: Unemployment Rate Increase Goes into Effect, Owner of Popular Manhattan Jewish Food Market Passes Away, and NYC’s Largest Landlord Penalized...

Title: Evening Roundup: Unemployment Rate Increase Goes into Effect, Owner of Popular Manhattan Jewish Food Market Passes Away, and NYC’s Largest Landlord Penalized for Illegal Water Fees

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Janae Pierre: New York State's unemployment rate increases, Saul Zabar, the owner of a popular Jewish food market in Manhattan, passes away, and New York City's largest landlord gets penalized for illegal water fees. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre.

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Janae Pierre: Unemployment benefits are going up in New York State. Those receiving unemployment are now eligible for a weekly payment of up to $869. That's up from the previous max of about $500. Governor Kathy Hochul celebrated the increase with labor leaders, like Wayne Spence of the Public Employees Federation.

Wayne Spence: It is going to profoundly impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. It's a big deal.

Janae Pierre: It's all because the state paid off a $7 billion unemployment insurance debt to the federal government earlier this year. Recipients should see the new rates on their unemployment checks next week.

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Janae Pierre: A man is in police custody after NYPD officials say he stabbed a female employee at a Manhattan beauty supply store Wednesday morning. Officials say it happened shortly after 10:00 in the Flatiron District. Police say the man and 21-year-old woman got into an argument at the store and may have known each other. The woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital and is expected to survive. An NYPD officer was slashed in the hand during the incident. Officials have yet to charge or identify the suspect.

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Janae Pierre: New Yorkers are mourning the death of Saul Zabar, the longtime owner of the iconic Upper West Side gourmet Jewish food market. He died Tuesday at the age of 97. Saul and his brother Stanley inherited the business from their parents, continuing their offerings of smoked fish, bagels, cheeses, and rugelach. WNYC spoke to Zabar last October, as the deli marked the 120th birthday of the city's subway system by handing out free black and white cookies. Zabar reminisced on the changes in the city since the business first opened back in 1934.

Saul Zabar: In '96, we used to have trolley cars running on Broadway. I don't know if you remember.

Janae Pierre: Governor Hochul called Zabar's death a great loss for New York City and anyone who's ever enjoyed the ultimate bagel and lox from Zabar's.

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Janae Pierre: One of New York City's largest landlords was hit with a big penalty for illegally charging tenants for water. WNYC first broke the story. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: Hundreds of rent-stabilized tenants across New York City will be getting a refund. That's after one of the city's largest landlords was hit with a $3.1 million penalty for illegally charging tenants for water. WNYC's housing reporter David Brand first uncovered the fees last year. David, how did you first discover that this was an issue?

David: It started last summer, summer 2024, when I was looking into a large number of evictions at LeFrak City. You know this place, Janae?

Janae Pierre: I'm unfamiliar, actually.

David: It's this huge housing complex in Corona, Queens. There's 20 different high-rise buildings, about 4,600 apartments. It's run by the LeFrak organization, which owns and operates 59 buildings with rent-stabilized apartments across the city. At the time, LeFrak City had more evictions than any other development site in New York. I was looking at hundreds of court records, and I noticed rent ledgers showing how much people owed in rent also included water charges.

A lot of the people who were losing their homes to eviction were also being charged for water, and reached hundreds of dollars a month in some cases. That really sparked my interest because state rules prohibit landlords from charging for water and other essential services in rent-stabilized apartments. That's when I asked state authorities about these charges.

Janae Pierre: What did authorities say?

David: I specifically went to the state's Division of Homes and Community Renewal. It's the state agency that oversees the rent regulation. They keep the historical rent records for people in rent-stabilized apartments. They handle overcharge complaints if you think your landlord is charging you too much per month in rent. They can also grant increases to landlords who renovate buildings or face financial hardship and apply for rent increase. At first, the agency declined to say whether the water charges were allowed, even though the rules pretty clearly state they're not.

I asked the LeFrak organization about the charges as well, and they told me there was a previous state ruling that actually allowed them to assess these charges on new tenants. I also talked to the tenant association there, though, and once the tenant association leaders realized this was happening, they started to organize, and they tried to determine roughly how many households in the complex were getting hit with these water charges. Then they partnered with a nonprofit group called Met Council on Housing, and eventually the state went to the LeFrak organization and told them they had to stop doing this. That was October of last year. Now, just the other day, they announced this $3.1 million penalty against the company.

Janae Pierre: $3.1 million. Where does that money go?

David: It'll go towards reimbursing tenants who were charged these water fees over the past several years. That's nearly 2,000 households in total that they're going to have to reimburse. This is going to come in the form of a rent credit. In the coming months, their rents will be reduced. They'll also get 9% interest on the money that they had previously paid. The state clearly discovered this was happening at more than just LeFrak City. I mentioned the company owns at least 59 buildings with rent-stabilized apartments across the city. This penalty is going to apply to tenants in all of them.

Janae Pierre: Wow.

David: One of the largest landlords in New York.

Janae Pierre: What has the company had to say about this penalty?

David: A company spokesperson declined to comment when I asked the other day, but tenants, as you might imagine, are pretty excited. I spoke with the president of the LeFrak City Tenant Association. Her name is Julianne Williams. She said once her association started investigating the charges and trying to talk to as many residents as possible, she started hearing from a lot of people who are facing these charges after moving in in the past few years.

Julianne Williams: I have names, names, names of tenants who have been busy calling the tenants' association wanting to know why are they paying water rate. This is good news because what goes for one should go for all.

Janae Pierre: Yes, definitely. Who doesn't like a rent credit, right?

David: That's right. It's going to be a big break for people who've been paying these charges. She's not the only one celebrating. Governor Kathy Hochul also hailed the news. Hochul says the state is not going to allow landlords to drive up the cost of rent-regulated housing with illegal fees like these water charges. There are still some remaining questions that I have. What about tenants who were evicted and who were charged these and who were previously paying but don't live there anymore? What about people in buildings that LeFrak owned and then sold in recent years, who either were paying those fees and maybe still are? We're going to figure those out.

Janae Pierre: Those questions haven't been answered yet?

David: Not yet, but we're going to.

Janae Pierre: Here's what I want to know. If I'm a tenant in a rent-stabilized apartment and the landlord is charging me for water right now, or even if the landlord tries to charge me for water in the future, what should I do, David?

David: You could talk to your landlord or the management company and point out, "Hey, state rules prohibit these kinds of charges for water or other essential services." Essential services here also include heat and repairs. Tenants in rent-stabilized apartments shouldn't be getting charged for those things. If that doesn't work, you can do what tenants over at LeFrak City did and file a complaint with the state's housing agency.

Janae Pierre: David, just to be clear, you broke this story, so technically, you're the reason why this settlement is happening. Do you get any of that money?

David: Hey, we're journalists. We're not personal injury lawyers. No commission.

Janae Pierre: [laughs]

David: No money here. We're just doing this for good journalism.

Janae Pierre: All right. Very good journalism. Thank you so much, David.

David: Thank you, Janae.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's David Brand.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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