Errant landlord arrested in New York

New York

DURING the single-digit temperatures in winter 2015, the family (with five children) had no heat and no hot water. That, the authorities say, was not even the worst of conditions the tenants endured as the last rent-stabilised holdouts in a building undergoing renovations so that the landlord could attract higher-paying tenants in East Harlem.

The water in the family's toilet bowl froze, so they had to use bathrooms at nearby restaurants. Demolition work commenced around them, rendering the building structurally unstable and blocking the only fire exit. And on many occasions, an agent of the landlord would bang on the tenants' door late at night threatening to report to the authorities their status as unauthorised immigrants from Mexico.