The Legal Aid Society is condemning Maimonides Medical Center for attempting to mass evict dozens of current and former healthcare workers from their longtime employee residences in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, as reported by Gothamist.

The hospital has filed 37 eviction cases across seven buildings so far. Additional cases are expected to be filed as other tenants have been served notices threatening eviction if they do not move out of their homes voluntarily. Currently, Legal Aid represents 13 of the affected individuals.

In 2018, Maimonides sold a number of buildings that the hospital had been renting out for decades at subsidized rates to workers as a part of their employment contracts. As part of the sale, Maimonides agreed to remain the landlord of the employee apartments which allowed the building’s current tenants to retain their housing. Now, Maimonides has claimed it has become too expensive to continue subsidizing and has begun the process of evicting all current and former employees.

Moreover, the Maimonides tenants are explicitly excluded from applying for any of the 221 affordable housing units that have been set aside under a regulatory agreement between the new owner, Park Affordable L.P., and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

“Our clients and all tenants impacted by Maimonides’ mass eviction efforts have dedicated their lives to providing care for patients at Maimonides, the majority of whom are Black and Latinx low-income New Yorkers, and put their own lives at risk working on the frontlines of the pandemic” said Nell Hirschmann-Levy, Supervising Attorney in the Housing Justice Unit – Group Advocacy at The Legal Aid Society.  “Some of these tenants have lived in these units for more than 30 years, and face homelessness if displaced. Maimonides Medical Center, as well as HPD, must work together to find a viable solution for the vulnerable tenants they are endangering.”