Mayor de Blasio is vowing to “take over operations” of a rodent-infested Bronx building hit by a deadly outbreak of a rare rat-borne disease.
De Blasio issued a statement late Wednesday night putting Ved Parkash, the owner of 750 Grand Concourse, on notice.
“We stand with the tenants. After deploying numerous tools to address persistent problems at this building, we are working with housing advocates and tenants to lodge an action against the landlord to take over operations,” de Blasio said.
“We will not rest until we’ve exhausted every measure to ensure the health and safety of these residents.”
Officials said the city will ask a Housing Court judge to boot Parkash and appoint an administrator to manage the building.
The city’s move came after the building’s angry tenants blamed the de Blasio administration for ignoring deplorable conditions in their homes.
“We’ve being going through this for years and it took somebody to die,” said Yasoda Martinez, 33, at an emergency meeting of the tenants Wednesday night before the mayor issued his statement.
Diane Manning, a member of the tenants association, told The Post afterward, “I’ve been here eight years, and it’s been one issue after another putting people and their children in danger.”
Last year, 38 of the tenants and the Urban Justice Center sued Parkash in Housing Court to correct hundreds of violations at the building, including rat infestations.
City officials told the tenants that as a result, Parkash had addressed many problems and the building has been cited for 80 violations, down from an original 307 in the spring of 2016.
One tenant living in an illegal basement apartment, Braulio Balbuena Flores, contracted leptospirosis last month. He recovered after being hospitalized.
The bacterial infection can be transmitted to humans from contact with rat urine.
Two people working at a small business on the same block also contracted the disease; one died.
Public Advocate Letitia James dubbed Parkash city’s “worst landlord” in a 2015 report.