The trouble began when the ceiling above the toilet collapsed. The Bravo family lost hot water and heat \u2013 sometimes the temperature would drop to 20F \u2013 and they had to boil water to bathe. Nathan, the youngest in the family, has asthma and needs a machine to help him breathe. A doctor blamed mould and cockroaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was because of a leak,\u201d says his sister Samantha Bravo-Huertero. \u201cWhen someone doesn\u2019t fix it, it does start filling with mould. It\u2019s disgusting to see. The landlord, her solution was to paint over it. You\u2019ve covering it but it\u2019s still there. Like, you\u2019re not fixing it!\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a story that could be told in any of the world\u2019s poorest countries. But it is happening in the 21st century in \u201cthe greatest city in the world\u201d, as Lin-Manuel Miranda<\/a> put it in Hamilton. The Bravo family live in New York \u2013 Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to be precise \u2013 and are experiencing the dark side of the new gilded age.<\/p>\n Their 15-year struggle with an abusive landlord who targeted Latino families is among the stories told in Slumlord Millionaire<\/a>, a documentary directed by Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez that explores the housing crisis in New York, focusing on the impacts of gentrification, predatory landlords and developer influence on the city\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to showcase how interconnected all these systems were and dig more into the roots of why this housing crisis exists and how it continues to persist,\u201d Ching, 37, says via Zoom from Brooklyn. \u201cLooking at how real estate money feeds into the politics of our city. There are these same issues that impact not only tenants but also homeowners.\u201d<\/p>\n New York is the US\u2019s biggest city but increasingly unaffordable for the average American. Some 69% of its residents rent. A third of New Yorkers spend more than 50% of their income on rent. The average Manhattan rent now stands at $5,000 a month. The median rent nationwide has surpassed $2,000 a month for the first time in history.<\/p>\n As rents increase, some landlords have become more aggressive in trying to get long-term tenants to move out of their homes. A major theme of Slumlord Millionaire is the unethical and often illegal methods used to push out existing, often rent-stabilised tenants to make way for higher-paying residents.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n These tactics include neglect (ignoring repairs, turning off heat and gas, doing nothing to eliminate vermin infestations), creating uninhabitable living conditions (rats \u201cwill come marching in, almost like troops\u201d, says one woman), and engaging in verbal and physical harassment.<\/p>\n The 86-minute film exposes the influence of wealthy real estate developers on local politics and legislation. This is exemplified by the onslaught against Moumita Ahmed<\/a>, who ran for election to the city council in Queens with a pro-tenant agenda.<\/p>\n Ching explains: \u201cHer campaign was viciously attacked by a Super Pac [political action committee] that was started by these billionaire developers who put a million dollars into it.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is familiar with big real estate money in politics, especially on a national or even state level. But for it to trickle down to these smaller local elections was eye-opening to us and shows how much hand the real estate industry has in all of our politics and, as a result, the legislation that gets written in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the 421-a tax break, an incentive programme intended to encourage development, has disproportionately benefited luxury housing developers at a significant cost to the city, resulting in billions in lost potential revenue.<\/p>\n The rent guidelines board, appointed by the mayor, determines rent increases for nearly half of New York apartments, illustrating a direct link between political power and rent affordability. A mayor bankrolled by the pro-developer lobby could choose to stack the board with anti-tenant individuals.<\/p>\n Martinez, 37, who used to live in a rent-stabilised unit, says: \u201cI remember my rent going up a random amount and I had no idea that this was actually a thing that you could go see and also that it was so directly tied to the mayor.<\/p>\n