Bloomfield Building Tenants Speak Out Against ‘Unlawful’ Eviction

After a sudden roof collapse forced them out of their homes, the tenants of the 27-unit apartment complex at 27 Park Place in Bloomfield demanded justice after their landlord terminated their leases.

At a May 12 press conference, tenants expressed their frustration at being unable to return to their homes, saying they deserve respect and refuse to be ignored by their landlord, Vincent Comperatore, or his associates.

“We’re not just people who send our paychecks to a management company, and we’re fine with that. We’re also people who have families. Some of us have children. Some of us are working caring jobs,” said Emily Holland, a tenant of the building. “So we are here hoping that this awareness kind of holds the management’s feet to the fire, that we are demanding clear communication.”

On Mar. 6, the northeast corner of the building’s roof caved in due to water damage, according to Bloomfield officials. Only a few tenants were inside at the time. This incident left one tenant injured and hospitalized after the ceiling fell onto her in her bed.

Aesha Downing, a tenant of 23 years, said in an interview with NJ Urban News that she and her seven-year-old daughter were at home when the roof caved in, and water poured into the building, making it a frightening and traumatic experience for them both.

The water leakage spread to multiple units in the building, which the Bloomfield Building Department has since deemed “uninhabitable.” Tenants were moved to a temporary shelter set up at the Bloomfield Civic Center. Some residents were forced to stay with their parents, in hotels, or even in college dorm rooms.

One of the tenants, Emily Holland, said that she and her fellow tenants received “mixed signals from the property management” about when they could return to their building. They reported receiving varying time frames for when building repairs would be finished, ranging from four weeks to three months to a whole year, at most.

Herbert Forsberg, another tenant, said, “Despite Vincent Comperatore and his team ignoring direct questions and withholding information about repairs, they proceeded with us on the basis that we would be returning to the building. 

However, on April 30, all the tenants received a “termination of lease” letter from Comperatore. 27 Park Place resident Vince Falcone said that, while he doesn’t harbor hard feelings, being displaced and ignored by his landlord has left him “heartbroken.”

“The landlord goes home at the end of the day, and he’s got his home. He’s got his bed, his couch, his tub, his kitchen. We don’t have that….I don’t know the word I want to apply to it, other than, not only is it not fair, it’s borderline cruel,” Falcone added.

Legal and construction issues

​New Jersey law requires a landlord to obtain a Superior Court judge’s approval before evicting tenants from a building. The tenants said that Comperatore never received a court order granting approval to evict them. Comperatore did not respond to a request to comment.

Tenants not only criticized Comperatore for ending their leases, but they also alleged that he failed to resolve longstanding maintenance problems that contributed to the roof collapse.

Matthew Font, one of the tenants and an HVAC technician, said in an interview that he noticed “a few red flags” in the building’s construction, citing his daily experience of seeing derelict rooftops.

According to Font, the building has a flat, “parapet roof” with four sides resembling a bathtub, which the New Jersey building code requires to have a secondary drain to prevent water ponding. He also said that after the roof collapse, Comperatore refused to heed his suggestion to install another drain, believing it “wouldn’t have made a difference.”

“I have seen a lot of the rooftops in Bloomfield, and I think the same problem is gonna affect other aspiring tenants…,” added Font. “Look, one of our neighbors was hospitalized in critical condition. What more of a pretext does the town need to take charge? Is this gonna be somebody’s kid next? Enough is enough.”

Elias Bull, an attorney and legal fellow of Make the Road New Jersey, said that the tenants displaced by this catastrophe still retain legal protections.

“Landlords have an obligation to maintain safe and habitable housing,” Bull said. “And when that happened, when that fails, as it did here, that should be corrected, and tenants have the right to return…under the same lease terms and conditions as they had prior to the catastrophe.”

Support from the community

The tenants saw their neighbors reaching out to support them in their time of need. One of these neighbors, Ann Hardy, said in an interview that she felt compelled to help them move out, as the town and the Red Cross’s ability to respond is “limited.”

The tenants also received support from local leaders, including Bloomfield council members Tracy Toler Phillips, Sarah Cruz, and Monica Suarez, who joined them in demanding greater protections for the renters who make up a reported 51% of the town’s population.

“Here we have people that are being asked to leave, their leases are being terminated for a reason beyond their control. And we need to fight for people to be able to stay in their apartments,” Phillips said in an interview.

Despite their uncertainty about their future, the tenants said that this incident brought them closer together as a community. They said they want the same thing: for the building to be repaired so they can return to their homes at 27 Park Place as soon as possible.​

“What happens when my insurance runs out? My family doesn’t have a home, because I can’t find a place to put us, because everything is so, so much more expensive,” said Downing. “ And I can’t just up and move out of [the] city like some other people can, because I have a kid in a school district, and it’s just what she knows.”

Editor’s note: The word “power pit” was changed to “parapet.”