Community Corner

Fight To Keep Evicted Clinton Hill Handyman Continues This Week

A large co-op's months-long struggle to stop the eviction of a live-in handyman and his family will come to a head at a meeting Thursday

Residents protest the eviction of Hector Caballero at the Clinton Hill Co-ops.
Residents protest the eviction of Hector Caballero at the Clinton Hill Co-ops. (Sophia Arthur-Roach)

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — Hundreds of residents from a housing cooperative in Clinton Hill will get what might be their final chance to stop the eviction of a beloved live-in handyman and his family on Thursday, but not in the way they originally thought.

Tenants from Clinton Hill Cooperatives, a 12-building complex of about 1,200 apartments, have gathered the signatures required to hold a special meeting about the eviction of handyman Hector Caballero, who was originally told to leave his home by April 15. The co-op's board later postponed the move-out date to July 1.

Residents originally thought the meeting, scheduled for this Thursday, would allow them to vote as shareholders of the cooperatives to reverse Caballero's eviction.

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But, instead, they found out through a notice of the meeting that they will only be allowed to discuss the issue, not vote.

"The board has issued the call for the special meeting but states that 'staffing related matters are not subject to a shareholder vote as a matter of corporate governance,'" resident Heather Benjamin said in an email update. "The fact that they are ignoring the will of the coop residents and acting in bad faith about the special meeting they suggested, is completely disgusting."

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Benjamin said that the board chair had suggested the residents organizing on behalf of Caballero could use the special meeting format to vote on the issue.

The only vote at the meeting, though, will be on another one of the residents' goals of changing the bylaws so that only one-third of residents are needed to reach a quorum at shareholder meetings, not a majority.

Even so, residents still plan to make their case for Caballero on Thursday, Benjamin said.

The meeting will be the latest in the tenants' efforts to keep Caballero, who has lived in a rent-free apartment in the co-ops for 19 years, from being evicted.

Board members have told residents that, among other reasons, they decided to take back the apartments of Caballero and another live-in handyman who already left to correct the "inequity" of having only some of the maintenance staff live rent-free in the co-ops, according to letters from the board to residents.

They have contended that a new system to deal with emergency issues has made the need for live-in handymen unnecessary and that they haven't asked Caballero to stop working at the co-ops, just to not do so while living in the complex.

But residents have argued — in addition to the "human level" of kicking out a longtime tenant — that Caballero's rent-free arrangement is justified because of his ability to be on-call 24 hours and because of his decades of experience working in the complex. They also have said that the inequity rationale doesn't seem to fit with the other maintenance staff who have joined the fight to have Caballero keep his apartment.

Board members did not return a request for additional comment on Tuesday.

This week's meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, though only shareholders of the co-op will be allowed to attend.


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