Dromm Supports Queens Vantage Tenants' Council Effort to Protect Renters

Daniel Dromm pauses while speaking in Spanish to the Queens Vantage Tenants' Council to allow a translator (right) to translate his words into English.

On December 3, 2008, Queens Vantage Tenants' Council (QVTC) held a rally at St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Church in Jackson Heights which was attended by over 250 people. Dromm spoke out against the abuses of Vantage Properties (and its chief financial backer, Apollo Real Estate Advisors) which owns numerous buildings in the 25th Council District.

Many tenants accuse Vantage of using many under-handed and possibly illegal tactics to force tenants from their homes including taking many tenants to court for no reason, harassing tenants who cannot produce a valid lease and trying to evict those tenants even though they have lived in their apartment for many years.

Vantage has been alleged to remove superintendents from a number of its buildings and telling tenants to call a service number when they have concerns or need repairs. Vantage has also been reported to return rent checks from tenants because of minor technicalities and thereby triggering eviction proceedings.

At the rally, Dromm spoke in Spanish and said, "I fully understand what you are going through having myself been a victim of an abusive landlord. Vantage needs to understand that although these are just investments to them; to us, they are our homes." Dromm served on the executive board of the tenants association of the rent-stabilized building where he used to live (70-35 Broadway) in Jackson Heights during the 1980's. Dromm has been fighting for tenants issues for over 25 years.

Dromm signed the QVTC's pledge promising "to stick by you through this battle. The only way Vantage can win is if we don't remain united in our efforts to secure justice. We must stay united."

Dromm supports the Council's demands that Vantage stop harassing tenants, that an independent monitor review all of Vantage's cases before Vantage takes them to court and that Apollo write a letter to all its tenants in all its buildings explaining who they are and that they will address the concerns of the QVTC.

In conclusion, Dromm thanked the Council and one of the main organizers of the event, Robert McCreanor, Director of Legal Services for the Immigrant Tenant Advocacy Project of the Catholic Migration Office of the Diocese of Brooklyn.