He would possibly appear to be a clown, however he’s no laughing matter to the beleaguered tenants of a NYCHA constructing in Chelsea.
A vagabond decked out in a kaleidoscopic wardrobe and head scarves has arrange camp in a metropolis residence constructing the place the unhinged squatter and his band of homeless mates have terrorized tenants for greater than two years.
Regardless of every day complaints concerning the harmful scenario, tenants stated the town appears powerless to take away the person who has laid declare to an residence to which he has no authorized proper.
The squatter, named in court docket paperwork as Stuart Newman and described as an aggressive man in his 40s, moved in when the previous occupant, 77-year-old Harvey Wasserman, died in June 2024, in accordance with a lawsuit filed by the New York Metropolis Housing Authority that November.
Since then, he’s refused to depart the Robert Fulton Homes, regardless of being taken to court docket and repeated visits from the NYPD.
He was photographed by tenants, rising from the highest of the staircase trying like a deranged parrot, carrying a pastel-colored tropical chook shirt and a makeshift towel turban with dangling multicolored strips of cloth.
Tenants say he brings in a gaggle of vagrants each night time, who repeatedly assault one another and the residents, shoot medication, strut round bare and arrange furnishings within the staircases, hallways and balconies.
“The police have dragged them out of there, they arrive proper again. It’s past loopy,” the pinnacle of the tenant affiliation Miguel Acevedo informed The Publish. “I believe it’s simpler to evict a tenant who owes again hire than this squatter.”
Tenants say the squatter’s homeless friends have tried to take excessive 5 flooring of the 25-floor constructing, run by the New York Metropolis Housing Authority on West seventeenth Road.
“They piss on my flooring, they s–t on my flooring,” stated Gladys Gonzalez, who lives on the twenty first flooring, one flooring above the squat.
“I get that they’re homeless, however it’s not simply the squatting, it’s the medication, it’s the pissing, it the s–t,” she added. “I come out of my residence with a hammer — it’s me or them.”
“There’s one which’s transgender, she used to sleep on my flooring together with her boyfriend. The final time I referred to as the cops, her boyfriend was utterly bare, solely had a shirt on, no sneakers, no underwear, and he was actually rubbing his penis and laughing at me.”
Police have made 5 arrests associated to the squatter’s unit since 2025, together with fees for menacing a 58-year-old tenant with a frying pan, placing a 56-year-old with a vase within the head, and harassment, an NYPD spokesperson informed The Publish.
Simply this previous Thursday, a 42-year-old was hit with a metallic pipe, slashing his head, arm and leg. The investigation into that incident continues to be ongoing.
When The Publish visited the constructing this week, remnants of the chaos from the night time earlier than had been noticed in an inside staircase, together with garments, syringes and urine. The squatter’s door was marked with an enormous “A” on it, in addition to a number of marks and dents.
“The door appears like that as a result of the homeless they had been throwing bricks at it at some point as a result of he wouldn’t allow them to in to get excessive,” stated Gonzalez.
“They clear it up every single day — housing comes every single day and brings down stuff from the twenty fifth flooring.”
On the month-to-month tenant assembly final week, representatives from the Manhattan District Legal professional’s workplace stated they had been working to determine the squatters, whose names should not all identified, tenants stated.
“Hastily they’ve squatter rights. They received a lawyer, to allow them to’t be evicted,” slammed Amelia Martinez, one other tenant of 10 years. “It’s a must to undergo the court docket system. That’s loopy. If I did that, they’d arrest me, walker and all . . . it’s disgusting.”
“Nothing ever occurs,” lambasted Gonzalez. “And what do they are saying? Oh, it’s public housing — we simply gotta cope with it. No one needs to be topic to this.”
“It’s a continuing battle with NYCHA, with the police, with the borough.”
One tenant, who didn’t wish to be recognized as a result of she feared for her security, stated she was scared to depart her residence.
“Someday the squatter was wearing black, he had a black hat and abruptly, he will get proper there and he pulls out a knife, and he’s simply sizing it up and going, ‘You’re not going to kill me,’” she stated.
“I don’t assume it’s honest for me to face them as a single feminine. I pay $1,000 a month and so they’re residing right here free and scaring the s–t out of me.”
In March, a NYC Division of Investigation report discovered that squatters took over at the very least 548 vacant NYCHA items between 2022 and 2025.
Since then, NYCHA informed The Publish it’s discovered some 40 extra, because it’s launched a month-to-month inspection program into vacant items.
“NYCHA workers routinely work with the NYPD to handle points regarding unauthorized occupants and loitering on NYCHA property,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Sklar informed The Publish.
However this squatter has been refusing entry to NYCHA officers, Acevedo informed The Publish.
And with authorities seemingly unable to take away him, residents are dropping hope.
