This year, a portfolio of dilapidated apartment buildings in the northwest Bronx gained public attention, becoming the city’s poster child for tenants suffering in overleveraged properties.

The buildings were owned by Milbank Real Estate, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles that purchased them during the boom times with a risky $35 million mortgage. In 2009, Milbank defaulted on the loan, sending the properties into foreclosure proceedings and into the hands of the loan’s servicer, LNR Property Corp., which has been looking to sell them to a new owner.
Since foreclosure, Milbank tenants have seen conditions in their homes deteriorate.  The 10 properties have more than 3,000 housing violations among them.

“We shouldn’t have to live like this,” Sergio Cuevas, whose apartment at 2785 Sedgwick Ave. is plagued by leaks, mold and rotting floors, told the Norwood News this fall. “I don’t invite anyone over to my home.”

With the help of organizers from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and lawyers from Legal Services-NYC, Milbank tenants caught the attention of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who commissioned an architectural firm to assess damage in the buildings. The firm estimated repairs could cost up to $26 million.

Department of Housing and Preservation Commissioner Rafael Cestero personally took a tour of three Milbank buildings in October, saying conditions there are some of the worst he’s ever seen. HPD then vowed to take a proactive role in inspecting all of the properties and making emergency repairs to them.

In the most recent victory for tenants, a Bronx Supreme Court judge ordered LNR to pay $2.5 million in making repairs on the properties early this month, though that amount is just a fraction of what advocates say is needed to make the buildings livable.