Greenwich Time reports that Connecticut State Senate hopeful Frank Farricker (pictured here with family from his campaign's website) has found himself the target of anger of many residents in Brooklyn brownstones operated by The Penson Companies where he serves as director of acquisitions.
The company has filed papers with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal asking the agency's permission to not renew rent stabilized leases and/or evict those tenants.
One of the brownstones in question, according to the paper, is 118 188 State Street (map) where disabled senior citizen Barbara Callender is a tenant. She points out that Farricker — who in his campaign for State Senate has said, "We can't let the spiraling cost of housing cost us some of our best residents" — is saying one thing but "doing something else."
The candidate/landlord tells the paper that neither he nor his company intend to evict rent stabilized tenants saying "I have no option other than to extend them their rent-stabilization rights."
The paper also spoke to Bennett Baumer from the Metropolitan Council on Housing. His opinion is that Farricker is twisting the truth. "This is a mass eviction that he's applied for, so his intention is to have everybody out on the street…he says one thing in Connecticut and does another thing in Brooklyn."
Farricker's website describes the candidate as, "a principal in a real estate development company in New York, specializing in historic renovation and affordable housing."
