94-Year-Old Manhattan Man Threatened With Pre-Hanukkah Eviction

Image by Google Maps

By Daniel J. Solomon December 21, 2016

Maxwell Levy seems to be due for a December visit from Scrooge, as his landlords attempt once more to evict the nonagenarian from his six-room apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“They want to get my apartment because they can make a lot more money,” the 94-year-old, who has lived in the same building since the 1950s, told the New York Daily News for a Wednesday article. Levy pays $1,650 a month for his apartment, which is well below market rate.

Pine Management, the owner of his building, has a reputation for playing hardball to kick out tenants in rent-controlled units. Levy has kept up with his rent, but the company has tried to evict him because it alleges that he is a hoarder. The courts have rebuffed previous eviction attempts that raised similar complaints.

Levy still lives independently in the apartment where he raised three daughters. In his working life he taught physics at New York University and ran an electronics repair business.

He won’t be appearing at a Housing Court hearing Wednesday; instead he is sending a representative who has power of attorney. Reflecting his age and apartment situation, he told the Daily News, “I’m living on borrowed time.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or follow him on Twitter, @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO