Residents Say Management Not Locking Doors at Bayside Complex

Residents of a Bayside apartment complex say they are concerned that the property’s management has been leaving doors at two of its buildings unlocked.

David Fischer, a spokesman for state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, said that one door is frequently left open at a Bayside Manor Apartments building located at 42-40 212th St. As a result, a homeless man has been sleeping in its basement.

At another building, located at 42-10 212th St., an outside door leading into the laundry room is often left unlocked, providing local youths with a spot to drink and take part in sexual activity, Fischer said.

“The residents are afraid to use the laundry room,” Fischer said. “There could be people drinking or doing drugs there.”

Fischer said Braunstein’s office received a letter dated Feb. 24 from WPH Apartments, which manages Bayside Manor, that promised to follow through on complaints about the unlocked doors.

The 111th Precinct would need a trespass affidavit signed by the buildings’ management to investigate. But WPH has, so far, refused to sign it, a spokesman for the precinct said.

Braunstein has contacted the city’s Department of Buildings on the matter and is in the process of getting in touch with the Queens district attorney’s office.

WPH Apartments did not immediately return calls for comment.

At a Community Board 11 meeting on Monday, Manor resident Jack Oshier told board members that tenants were uncomfortable with the doors being left open or unlocked.

“There are kids hanging out in the basement and the owners are not locking the doors,” he said. “There are broken lights all over the garage. A few basement doors are open and anyone can go down there. This is affecting the surrounding community.”

Another resident who did not want to give her name said youths have been hanging out in the laundry room for about a year-and-a-half.

"It was getting to be where I'd have to call the police every weekend," she said. "They hang out, smoke pot, have sex and vomit. I've had my laundry strewn all over the place. I don't do my laundry at night anymore, which is a big inconvenience for me because I work. Some of these kids get very antagonistic with the tenants. And we have a situation where a homeless person is allowed to live in the basement of the building next to me."