For weeks, a family in Binghamton has been living without water access.

Last week, members of the Stakeholders of Broome County, a housing rights activist group, as well as other members of the Binghamton Tenants Union, gathered at Mary Street to voice their support for Angel and Deidre Garcia, a family with seven children that has been living without water access after their landlord, Douglas Ritter, removed water pipes from the building.

The Garcia family has been living without access to running water since Feb. 4, according to a complaint submitted to the New York State Supreme Court. Ritter, the landlord, alleges the water access was removed as a result of water coming down through the ceiling onto the first-floor tenant, who lives below the Garcia family, which Ritter claims the Garcias are at fault for.

Shutting off water access to a tenant constitutes a Class A misdemeanor in New York state, and is also in violation of code of the City of Binghamton.

Though Ritter claimed the closing of water was unrelated to rent payments, the timing of the water shutoff on Feb. 4 coincides with the date of a postponed non-payment eviction proceeding against the Garcias, according to court filings.

Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham said Ritter is currently being criminally prosecuted by the city attorney and the Broome County District Attorney’s Office. According to Megan Heiman, executive assistant to Kraham, the water cannot be immediately switched on by the city’s code department — one of several demands proposed by the Stakeholders of Broome County.

“Regarding water service, this is unfortunately not a matter of turning a valve back on to restore service,” Heiman wrote in an email. “A section of plumbing was cut from the building. This is part of the reason why the landlord is facing criminal charges. Substantive repairs are needed.”

Binghamton Code Enforcement had asked Ritter to restore water service by Feb. 9, which Ritter had refused to do, leading to him being charged with a misdemeanor for unlawful eviction, and the issuing of a warrant, with a court date scheduled of April 1.

Ritter said he had first turned off the Garcia’s family’s water for a five-day period in December, as a result of water flooding down onto the first floor, and had turned the water back on “reluctantly,” before shutting it off again in February when water continued to come through the ceiling. Ritter blamed the Garcia family for the leakage, but said he was not sure of the exact cause.

“There’s only one thing it can be,” Ritter said. “They plug up the drains, turn the water on and leave.”

Ritter said he had placed a padlock on a door in the basement leading to the water controls, and that he would not return water access until the Garcia family left the building — though Binghamton City Code requires a tenant to have access to water controls.

The Garcias’ lawyer, William Niebel of Legal Services of Central New York, told a different story. Niebel said shutting off the water was a decision made by Ritter in frustration, following his inability to evict the Garcias, who were struggling to pay for rent amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

After falling behind in recent rent payments amid having work hours cut due to the rising Omicron variant, Niebel said the family had applied for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) on January 19, which stayed a non-payment eviction proceeding scheduled for Feb. 4.

“Mr. Ritter found out a few days before at least, that the eviction case was canceled,” Neibel said. “So there was going to be no hearing on the [Feb. 4], and he tried to persuade the court otherwise, that didn’t go anywhere and so then on [Feb. 4], he went ahead and turned the water off.”

Ritter denied he had closed the Garcia’s water access as a result of rent, and claimed he had attempted to fix the water leakage, which he attributed to the Garcias, but said his workers had difficulty accessing the apartment. Niebel said there was no evidence the Garcias were responsible for any water leakage, and Ritter had not contacted him to fix the issue.

“I don’t think Mr. Ritter has gone in to seriously make the repair,” Niebel said. “Even since I’ve been involved — Feb. 8 is when I first talked to him about this — he’s never asked me to get access to the apartment, which of course I would facilitate. So I think there’s been, maybe, some work done from below, from the first floor apartment to fix a clogged pipe, that was kind of my understanding. But not in the Garcia’s apartment that I’m aware of.”

The first-floor tenant is also a defendant in the upcoming court proceedings, with the Garcia family claiming he had prevented them from accessing the water controls in the basement. According to the tenant, who wished to remain anonymous, his ceiling tiles — recently replaced by the landlord’s son, Steven Ritter — have become damp even after the water was turned off in the alleged attempt to prevent the issue from occurring, though the leakage has subsided.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on, I really don’t,” the tenant said. “But already they [are] stained, if you come in you could see already. And he just put the brand new things in there so where could anything be from if there ain’t no water turned off?”

Other complaints submitted by the Garcia family to the Court included being asked to pay $50 for a copy of their lease and Ritter calling Child Protective Services (CPS) on the family following his removal of their water access. Though Ritter denied having asked the family to pay for their lease, he said he had called CPS at least two times, including to report the lack of running water.

Niebel said the Garcia family has been attempting to seek housing elsewhere, but has had difficulty finding other options, using bottled water to cook meals. In court filings, the Garcias also stated they had been forced to partially move out of the apartment, as well as purchase a storage unit and live in a one-bedroom apartment owned by Mr. Garcia’s brother.

Ritter said he would not return water service to the family, claiming they had also misdirected him about the number of family members in the apartment.

“I’ve got to think of the rights of the other tenants, not just them,” Ritter said. “And I won’t turn it on because I turned it on, they promised it wouldn’t happen again and it happened again, and they’ve lied to me so many times I’ve given up.”

As a landlord, Ritter has been reported for code violations in the past, and was also involved in a recent lawsuit in 2019, in which Ritter had increased his tenants’ rent by $375 per month partially through the year, unless the tenants paid rent by the 19th of each month. The court had deemed the rent increase, which amounted to 65 to 75 percent of the tenants’ monthly rent an unenforceable late fee.

In the past few weeks, various community members and members of the Binghamton Tenants Union have been dropping off bottles and gallons of water at the Garcias’ house to support the family. Among them is Salka Valerio, community organizer of Citizen Action, who said over $200 dollars worth of water has been delivered so far. Valerio described the issue as a forced eviction.

“[It] is really a plumbing issue, not anything of their fault,” Valerio said. “Back in September, the tenant did report that it was plumbing issues — the landlord never came and fixed it. So then here [he] comes trying to do a forced eviction, turning the water back off and stating that he’s not going to turn it back on.”

Earlier this week, members of Citizen Action of New York and the Binghamton Tenants Union had also traveled to the office of New York State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, to call for her support of Good Cause Eviction — a bill that would create automatic lease renewal rights and set rent increase limits. In an email, Lupardo condemned Ritter’s actions, and said she supported actions taken to prevent landlord abuses.

“While I am not involved with the County’s policies on Tax Foreclosure Auctions, I am involved with discussions about the proposed Good Cause Eviction legislation,” Lupardo wrote. “I have never downplayed the importance of keeping people in their homes, avoiding unreasonable rent increases and preventing landlords from using unfair tactics to remove good tenants. Unfortunately, this issue has become politically charged, to the point where each side has made it a litmus test.”

Lupardo said her office is working on the initiative, also taking example from New Jersey, which has had Good Cause Eviction legislation since the 1970s.

In addition to calling for support for Good Cause Eviction, the Stakeholders of Broome County had also called for a systematic code enforcement program, a receivership program to address “persistent noncompliance” by property owners and the end of the Broome County Real Property Tax Foreclosure Auction.

“We recognize the Ritters aren’t the first slumlords in Broome County and they won’t be the last,” the Stakeholders of Broome County wrote. “If you currently have landlord issues or are interested in combating abusive landlords throughout the county, we encourage you to reach out.”

Ritter, the first-floor tenant and the Garcias are scheduled to appear in the New York State Supreme Court on April 1.

The Garcia family did not respond to request for comment.

This is a developing story, which will be updated as Pipe Dream receives more information.