The end of a hallway is unlit in one of buildings at Nob Hill Apartments. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

Joe Maywin has lived for months at Nob Hill in a building and an apartment with unsafe doors. He said the door to building three, where he lives, is not properly secured and is open for non-residents to walk into the building. The screen door in his apartment is also unusable. 

Maywin cannot imagine living at Nob Hill for much longer. He likes the proximity to his job at the Byrne Dairy plant in DeWitt, but he also feels like the $1,350 a month he pays for his two-bedroom apartment is too much for the complex to not have proper safety features. 

Those issues prompted him to join up with 12 other tenants to file individual lawsuits seeking repairs at the complex and their respective units earlier this summer.

“My screen doors are all broken. Elevators don’t work half the time. The emergency lights don’t work,” Maywin said. “For somebody who’s paying that much money, the place should not look like that.”

But Maywin’s feeling of uncertainty at Nob Hill escalated Friday at a court hearing in the cases filed by tenants, where five of the 13 renters spoke about the disrepair at the complex and in their respective units.

Other tenants from the same building told Judge Shadia Tadros, who presides over cases of tenants suing property owners to secure repairs and rent abatement in Syracuse City Court, that for months some tenants have had “bump keys” that grant them access to other apartments in their building.

“That really worries me,” Maywin told Central Current. “I’m not gonna live in an apartment that people can have access to.”

Tenants say the existence of these keys among renters is highly problematic, and indicative of the types of security problems across Nob Hill. Central Current reported last month on the dozens of code violations still present at the complex, as well as complaints from tenants who say they feel unsafe. 

The problems with security brought up by tenants elicited a strong response from Tadros, who decried the circulation of keys that could open every apartment in building three. 

‘From Snob Hill to Slob Hill’: Tenants say conditions at once luxurious apartments forced them to sue owner

“That is one of the most dire security issues I have ever seen,” Tadros said, referring to her tenure as a judge in housing court. 

Consultants helping manage Nob Hill say they have recovered the “bump keys” and that they have installed new locks in at least 63 of the 109 occupied apartments in the building. Maywin got a new lock installed in his apartment Friday night hours after the hearing, he told Central Current. 

John Giannuzzi, the complex’s general manager, said at the hearing they learned about the bump keys in August and immediately collected the keys. He said he put in an order for 109 deadbolt locks, but that management was not able to install them on all doors in the building because more than 40 locks came in defective.

“We moved mountains, your honor,” Giannuzzi told Tadros.

City officials say they knew of the existence of the keys, but that tenants did not inform the city’s Division of Code Enforcement and that tenants decided to deal with management directly.  

Sarah Pallo, a city spokesperson, said the keys represent a safety concern and a code violation. Pallo urged tenants to contact 911 with safety concerns. 

“We will take the steps necessary to ensure the property owner provides a safe living environment for its tenants,” she said. 

The city sued Nob Hill in April for consistent property code noncompliance, seeking millions in re-investment into the property. 

Addressing security is part of a multimillion dollar plan from management consultants Destra Multifamily LLC to turn Nob Hill around. So far, the company has invested in fixing up the elevators in every building, hiring exterminators to spray two of the four buildings weekly, starting roof repairs, and contracting with a cleaning company to address issues with the garbage.  

“We are people who are cooperating,” said Joe Labita, an executive at Destra. “We are the driving force of the solution and we are making meaningful progress every day.”

But several issues remain. The complex has 46 open code violations, ranging from inadequate or non-existent fire safety features to plumbing issues. 

Tenants testified in court that while some repairs have been made across the complex, problems in their individual units remain largely unaddressed.

Security remains one of tenants’ top priorities. It was one of the unifying issues that brought them together to form a tenants association last December. 

“We’ve been asking for security repeatedly,” said Kona Mahu, one of the leaders of the association. “Having a situation that makes our residents even more insecure is just absolutely unconscionable.”

Tiesha Muhammad, one of the tenants, said she realized in August she had a bump key when she was catsitting for a neighbor and mixed up her keys with her neighbor’s. Then she realized she was still able to open her own door.

“I felt shocked, confused, then angry,” Muhammad told Central Current.

Syracuse sues Nob Hill Apartments ownership, citing failure to address code violations

For management, fixes to problems have to be systemic, and thus take longer to address. So far, Labita said management has replaced the panels to entrance doors that were not up to standard. They have also contracted Eastern Security Services, a local safety monitoring company, to evaluate the doors’ electromagnetic locks. Destra is also looking to expand Wi-Fi connectivity in the buildings to install security cameras, Labita said.

“We’re moving,” Labita said. “We’re actually doing the stuff that we said. We’re honest people trying to do good for this property right now as we speak.”

For Maywin and other tenants, repairs are not happening fast enough.

“I have not seen these changes at all,” Maywin said. “They have barely even worked on some of the maintenance issues we have brought up.”

The 13 tenants who filed individual suits through the “Tenant Dignity and Safe Housing Act” have another court appearance scheduled for Oct. 21. Tadros, who hears Tenant Dignity and Safe Housing Act cases, said she will assess potential damages that could be awarded to tenants. 

Tadros has already abated any owed rent for the five tenants who were in court last Friday and also froze the rent going forward until repairs are made to the tenants’ apartments. 

Read more of Central Current’s coverage

Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...