Founded in 2006 as a grassroots tenant-organizing and advocacy group, incorporated in 2008, and established as a non-profit in 2009, People Against Landlord Abuse and Tenant Exploitation (P.A.’L.A.N.T.E.) began as an informal group of tenant associations formed in response to deteriorating conditions in three buildings in Harlem, all owned by the same landlord who was illegally attempting to remove rent stabilized apartments from rent regulation.

 

Tenants in the buildings faced toxic mold, collapsed ceilings, peeling lead paint, leaking pipes, backed up sewers, and more than 2,500 open housing maintenance code violations across the three buildings. After several years of organizing, education, a rent strike, HP actions filed in Housing Court to compel repairs, and Article 7A litigation against the buildings’ owners; the tenants secured a victory in housing court that stripped the landlord of his management rights and appointed a 7A administrator to manage the buildings. Legal rents were established and rent overcharges were refunded to the tenants.  In 2011, the buildings were rehabilitated and brought back into compliance with housing and building codes, and the illegally deregulated apartments were returned to rent stabilization.

 

Over the years, P.A.’L.A.N.T.E. has grown and expanded the services it offers, but its mission has remained the same: to end tenant exploitation in order to enable low-income community residents to remain in their homes and ensure that those homes are safe and affordable. P.A.’L.A.N.T.E. does this primarily by organizing and empowering residents to hold negligent owners and property managers accountable.