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Robert Fulton Terrace & Fordham Towers Residents Refuse to Settle
By: Zendo Rouson
Cold water, rats, and broken elevators have plagued the residents of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers for years. Some residents are significantly affected.
The properties were removed from the Mitchell-Lama program after having their mortgages bought out in 2007 as part of a $3 billion deal involving J.P. Morgan Chase. The buildings fell under the management of Fordham Fulton Realty.
“My son is in a wheelchair; he cannot get up and down [the stairs]” said Jennifer Sledge, a longtime resident of Robert Fulton Terrace. That was the third time the elevator hadn’t worked for her in a week. In May, the buildings’ owners were handed the largest civil penalty the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has ever levied against a landlord.
Karan Singh, listed as a respondent-owner in a 2024 Legal Aid Society lawsuit filed against Fordham Fulton Realty on behalf of residents of Robert Fulton Terrace, was detailed by tower tenants as being at the center of this apartment structure’s inhabitants.
“When Singh took it over, that’s when everything took a big nosedive”, residents exclaimed.
At one end of Fordham Towers’ dimly lit 7th floor hallway, you’ll find Christina Christian’s mother’s apartment, where delays in building maintenance led to unforgiving bathroom conditions. “You could only use the bathroom when a bag is hanging over you, with liquid,” said Christian.
The unit’s bathroom is home to a long list of problems itself: Loose tiles strewn across the floor – a job left unfinished by building management -, a headless shower, and a door nearly falling off its hinges. Her mother used to spend much time on the balcony, but the view doesn’t justify the danger in a building which saw multiple units receive a vacate order for severe terrace cracking.
“The floor, they were supposed to fix it, haven’t fixed it,” she said of the balcony which overlooks Fordham.
George Willis, a longtime resident of Robert Fulton Terrace, said it looks the same as it did in 1978, but that “It’s all messed up now, not how it used to be”. He spends his days in a camping chair on the sidewalk outside the building.
“Hi Grandpa,” a kid said to Willis, who clarified after that he bears no relation to the child. “This used to be a building of families”, said Sledge, who remembers a time when residents had organized themselves into a strong tenants association, now defunct. Her colorful apartment is not home to the chronic issues that have defined the lives of many of her neighbors, which she credits to her persistent self-advocacy and timely rental payments.
To Sledge, the primary issue is newer tenants showing a disregard for the building’s condition, often throwing trash out of their windows: “I just can’t fathom in my mind why you would be so nasty,” she said. Still, she strongly condemns patchwork solutions and a lack of preventive measures at the hands of prior management. The new management, she says, seems to provide quick fixes.
There are mixed feelings about the new management: “I feel like you have to give them a chance,” says Crystal Tuck, a lifelong resident of the Towers, “Now that they have direction, stuff is getting done.”
She recalls scaffolding being erected and hot water being turned on by prior management in anticipation of visits by HPD officials. The 2024 lawsuit included accusations of false certifications of HPD violations to downplay the severity of living conditions. Alberto Zorrilla doesn’t feel as fondly towards the new management. His cupboard won’t shut properly, the bedroom door bears a Kratos-like vertical gash, and he had to have his sink installed of his own accord. The door has been broken since he arrived nearly a decade ago.
The issue of bad landlords – characterized by high rates of evictions and violations – is not unique to these two buildings, and the Bronx has a disproportionately high concentration of them, research from the Regional Plan Association has shown. Julie Elliot, Director of Strategic Operations and Policy at HPD, said their “biggest priority is ensuring that repairs are made.” Spotlight on the Bronx is one of many components of the Block by Block plan the city recently announced.
Beginning in Fall 2026, the city will assist Bronx communities in need of better housing, healthcare, childcare, and business. Elliot said that Spotlight on the Bronx and similar initiatives are working to address the disparities in housing seen between boroughs.