NYC DOE staffers sued for unpaid rent for Dominican teachers
A group of city Department of Education administrators is being sued for $24,000 in unpaid rent by the owners of a Bronx house where teachers brought from the Dominican Republic were forced to live.
ADASA, the Association of Dominican-American Supervisors and Administrators, leased a duplex at 1820 Pilgrim Ave., then required five teachers and one woman’s husband to pay $1,350 to $1,450 a month for single rooms while sharing a kitchen and bathroom.
But the DOE administrators running ADASA — now under investigation — have not paid the monthly $8,000 rent since November, landlords Yuping Chen and Yanlai Lin charged in a lawsuit filed in Bronx Housing Court last month.
As of Jan. 5, ADASA also owed more than $20,000 in rent at 4414 Baychester Ave in The Bronx, where the group made 11 other Dominican teachers live under similar conditions.
A third building where the DOE administrators put Dominican teachers, a co-op on Marion Avenue in The Bronx, was owned by the late mother of Emmanuel Polanco, ADASA’s first vice-president and the principal of MS 80 before he was removed from the school in October.
In December, city and federal agencies began to investigate complaints that the Dominican teachers were exploited and threatened by ADASA.
Last week, teachers told The Post they have not been informed about the progress of the probe.
All 19 teachers housed by ADASA have since moved out.
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