183 Prospect Place

Forget the ASPCA, this is a public health issue - both the man's & his neighbors. Contact the Board of Health immediately; they will coordinate with animal services. Also contact your city council rep immediately; they will help with follow-up. Also ask your council rep's office what other services should be involved. It always helps if several people call and state the problem objectively & dispassionately. ASPCA cannot enter a property without the owner's consent; the Board of Health has greater powers. By stressing the man's apparently fragile state you may get a quicker response.

I've always avoided the owner of 183, but if you are really concerned about the situation, you should consider contacting the family of the people involved (easier said than done, I know!). They may not know the extent of the problems, or they might be dealing with it in ways that you don't know about.

Living in this building is at times downright terrifying. This situation has been going on for years apparently but did not know that when I moved in last year. 311 (Dept of Health) has been called several times. They have fined him and that is about it. ASPCA came finally but no news yet if/what they can do anything. A hurt cat was trapped and brought to AC&C. Contact me if you want to be in the loop on the current efforts...

With all due respect to the officer, I would not start this effort in housing court; I would start this process with Adult Protective Services.

In addition to offering him mental health services, they could get him evaluated by taking petitioning for a mental hygiene warrant.

They would only be successful if they were able to prove that such action was necessary.

The webpage below is geared toward families members of persons with mental illness, and makes it sound as if you must be related to the individual to petition for a warrant. (You do NOT need to be a family member!). However, I link it because it provides a pretty good explanation of the process that Adult Protective Services, a neighbor or a family member must go thru to petition for a warrant.

http://newyorkcity.ny.networkofcare.org/mh/resource/agencydetail.cfm?pid=KingsCountyBrooklynMentalHygieneWarrantprocedure_754_2_0

Last piece of advice: If you choose to pursue getting him mental health care or other services, you'll need to be very patient, persistent, and organized. You'll likely find it helpful to involve other tenants and the managing agent/landlord in the effort.

@whynot_31

just fyi, he IS the landlord...which is likely why the situation has persisted for so long.

I've lived in the building for about 6 years. He's hot and cold, either behaving completely insane or non-existent. I've seen him yell at the neighborhood (i.e., nobody in particular, just at the ether) for hours, and slur obscenities at people just for passing by. He has some friends that come by and he is cruel to them as well. He is pretty much mean to everybody and suffers from some acute form of paranoia, among other behavioral disorders.

He's somewhat friendly to me, but that's a very generous usage of the term. I simply learned to just stay out of his way, vice-versa. The times he's yelled at me were bizarre, arbitrary, and unsettling to say the least. He ostensibly uses intimidation to bend people to his will. Although he his comportment is indeed unstable I do believe he is conscious of this image and uses it towards his advantage. In other words, he's aware people are intimidated by him (and don't like him), and exploits this, which I think enables him. I say this after being here for so long that I've since noticed that his behavior has a specific pattern to it.

The hall way smells bad, it ebbs and flows. I think it's worse out front. My apartment is fine, however I have taped up my heating vents so as to block the stench. About two years ago it was ungodly (I know now this is attributed to the cat in the ceiling).

I and my roommate rescued a 3-4 month yr. old kitten that was abandoned in the hall way. I've since adopted him and the landlord never once asked. This either indicates he has no idea ho many cats he has or simply doesn't care about him enough to even notice one missing. The cat had an eye infection (couldn't open on if eyes one morning, it was glued shut) and it had pretty bad case of ear mites. He's fine now, very well adjusted considering the conditions he came from. However, the cat that was found outside last week was not okay. It was terrifyingly scabbed and covered in dirt, all this undoubtedly indicating that the conditions downstairs are quite likely beyond belief.

we are moving away. as quickly as our schedule will allow. but I refuse to be bullied into another hasty move. my concern at this point is for the welfare of the animals - both current and future generations, and for the welfare of future tenants. I have myself to blame for the hasty and optimistic move into this place - though the brokers were certainly complicit in the lies that fueled that optimism.

I'd at least like to leave with a clear conscience and make the facts public while I'm still inside.

Cornell University Hoarding Task Force

This website may have some other links to helpful organizations.

I lived just down the block from there for two years and completely missed this whole thing. I have always thought that it was one of the most bizarre and ugly painting jobs ever. I feel like it was re-painted last year sometime too.

If he ever makes a direct / specific threat of violence you can call the police and request a Crisis Intervention team come and evaluate him. Be very clear that based on what he said you believe he is going to hurt you or someone else imminently. If this is the case, they will most likely have to hospitalize him which may allow some progress to be made. Brookdale and several hospitals also have crisis intervention teams that may be willing to come and evaluate him.

What he is demonstrating most likely isn't his "choice" but a serious illness that needs treatment. He's probably suffering through all of this as well as the cats and everyone else. Situation sucks.

Oh, that's great! Did they remove the kitties?

Just to update you all:

I spoke at length with the investigator. They won't/can't do much of anything. Final count of cats (inside the apartment only, not counting the backyard ones) is 11 cats/6 kittens =17! none of which are fixed. I asked the officer if he could at least get some kind of intervention to get them fixed or if Animal Care and Control could take some of the cats since ASPCA won't and he said no. Hoarding is not against the law and apparently there were bags and bags of food. Aside from some respiratory issues, the cats were in good health.

Errol told the officer some animal rescue group would take the kittens and agreed that he needs to bring the 11 adult count down to like 5. I highly doubt any of this is going to happen. He also claimed to the officer that the cat with the bad ear mites (who was trapped and had to later be put down), was not his cat. It was.

The whole thing was a dead end basically. I also asked about the health code violations and the officer said as long as he pays the summons, there is not much he can do. Errol cooperated with the officer and showed him all the rooms. The officer said you could could almost choke and suffocate from the smell in some parts of the apartment but there is nothing further they can do.

If anyone has contact at any rescue organizations or knows anyone who would actually come, knock on Errol's door and offer to remove some of the cats or at least take them to get fixed, please take action.

Hey- my girlfriend and I were about to sign a lease on this building till we read this and then called the cops AND the ASPCA to find out what was going on! Can anyone here message us back as to their experience, as we're collecting info for getting our deposit back from the broker . Thanks for the heads up on this situation we narrowly avoided.