The Brooklyn District Attorney's office has arrested two landlords for allegedly attempting to make a building in the borough uninhabitable for its current tenants. The DA's office claims that the landlords wanted to push the building's tenants out and charge higher prices for the available units. Prosecutors have not yet detailed specific charges.

One of the brothers, Joel Israel, owns the building at 98 Linden Street in Bushwick, where he is accused with his brother Aaron of undertaking extensive renovations that were invasive to the current tenants. Tenant advocates have said that the renovations made certain apartments practically unlivable, via the New York Times:

Longtime tenants in several buildings owned by the Israels have complained of hazardous conditions they believe are an effort to force them to leave, so their units could be rented out at much higher rates.

Prosecution of landlords on criminal charges is rare, but the case of 98 Linden was particularly egregious, law enforcement officials and tenant advocates said.

In summer 2013, under the pretext of undertaking repairs, a worker for the landlord destroyed the kitchens and bathrooms of two ground-floor apartments with a sledgehammer, taking down a wall that divided the apartments in the process.

Lawyers for the Israels allege that it was necessary for the brothers, who own at least ten other buildings in New York, to perform the structural renovations on 98 Linden Street and that tenants of the building refused other accommodations that were offered to them.

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