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State AG says Green National must address tenant living conditions or face $300,000 fine

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New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement with Greenland Property Services, LLC, and its related entity Green National, requiring them to address all housing code violations within 60 days, in a press conference Tuesday.

In the agreement, Green National, a real estate management company owned by Troy and Tim Green, will pay a $300,000 penalty, of which all but $50,000 will be suspended if all terms of the agreement are fulfilled within 60 days. ​​The other $50,000 will be paid effective immediately to the state, according to a press release from the state attorney general’s office.

“Thousands of tenants have endured years of dirty, dangerous conditions and they’ve lived without hope,” James said during a press conference Tuesday in downtown Syracuse. “I’m here to announce to thousands of tenants of Green National and related companies, that your nightmare is coming to an end.”

Green National manages over 1,000 apartments in buildings throughout the Syracuse area, such as the Skyline Apartments, Springfield Garden Apartments and the Vincent Apartments, according to the press release and the company’s website. Tenants of these buildings are mostly people with modest incomes, people with health challenges, people receiving aid from government programs and the elderly, James said.

In 2016, a Syracuse University student, who is a Chinese national, was shot and killed near the Springfield Garden Apartments complex. The Chinese consulate general in New York expressed concerns in a 2016 statement after the victim’s body was identified.

The Skyline Apartments, another building owned by Green National, has been surrounded by drug use and gun violence over the past years, according to the press release, and residents also reported human waste and drug paraphernalia in the hallways, broken elevators and inadequate security inside the building. The city of Syracuse has declared the apartment’s public areas unfit for human habitation multiple times.

In March 2021, Connie Touri, 93, was murdered in her home in the Skyline Apartments. Less than two weeks later, a then-28-year-old male resident was stabbed in the chest outside the building. Two months later, another male resident, who was 27 at the time, was stabbed in the chest in the same building, according to an information release from the Syracuse Police Department. On Jan. 23, 2022, a 31-year-old female was shot in the midsection in the Skyline Apartment, according to SPD.

Tenants at the Skyline Apartments building filed a class action lawsuit against the building’s owners for an alleged “pattern of exploitation” of tenants with low incomes as well as the government agencies that subsidize their rent, according to the complaint. The first appearance will be held on April 13.

On Jan. 25, syracuse.com reported the Skyline Apartments are under contract to be sold to a national buyer known for “turning around struggling properties.” The name of the buyer is currently unknown.

Larry Fuller, a tenant in the Skyline Apartments for almost nine years and one of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, said the building used to be “clean, safe and desirable.”

“Every time I witness violence or was threatened by trespassers — sometimes steps from my own home — I wondered when will it be enough?” Fuller said. “But (with) today’s announcement, hopefully all of us have our answer: enough is enough.”

“The Greens have treated their tenants as something less than human for far too long in the city,” Fuller said. “No person should ever be expected to live like this. I hope no one here ever has to live like this, and I’m sure the Greens don’t live like this.”

“The Greens have treated their tenants as something less than human for far too long in the city,” Larry Fuller said.

Photo by Francis Tang | Asst. News Editor; Photo Illustration by Maya Goosmann | Digital Design Director

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, along with Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, were also present. Walsh thanked James and her office as well as McMahon for stepping in to address the city’s housing problem.

“We have used every tool in our toolkit to hold Green National accountable.” Walsh said.

Yet during the weekly inspection of the Skyline Apartments on Tuesday, the same day as the conference took place, the city of Syracuse found the very same conditions that led to the city to declare the public areas of the property “unfit for human habitation” again, Walsh said. This is the fourth time the city has declared the building as unfit for living.

“So clearly, the tools that we have in our toolkit haven’t been enough,” he said.

McMahon also thanked the state attorney general’s office and the mayor, as well as the tenants who have spoken up for the treatment they have endured.

“We know that in this business, money talks,” McMahon said. “And the attorney general has come in a big way with a big sum of money with a heavy, heavy fine to really hold this outfit accountable.”

“Being a landlord is a business, and it comes with heavy responsibilities,” James said. “And Green National ignored those responsibilities. Green National broke statutory and contractual obligations that any landlord owes tenants in ways that are unforgivable.”

In addition, James told The Daily Orange that with the expiration of the state’s eviction moratorium last month, the state attorney general’s office hopes that the state legislature would expand the right to counsel of tenants all across the state.

James said her office is working with legal services across the state. She hopes the federal government or New York state budget will fund the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which provides economic relief to help low and moderate-income households at risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability, according to the program’s website.

James said the agreement with Green National should serve as a “notice” to any and all landlords in New York state, since it is just “the beginning” of the state’s effort in addressing Syracuse’s longstanding housing problems.

“This should be a notice to any and all landlords, and anyone else that tries the same tactics, that the Office of Attorney General of the State of New York will not tolerate landlords profiting from misery,” James said.

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