A love story, not a lease, decides Washington Heights rent-controlled apartment battle

When Earle Williams died unexpectedly in 2009, he left neither a marriage certificate nor a will to show that his long-time live-in partner was entitled to stay in his rent-controlled Washington Heights apartment.

What he left instead was a love story.

In a Manhattan courtroom, Williams’ partner, Freda Henderson, 78, had to prove that story to a judge in order to stay in the home at a substantially below-market rent.

She and others who knew the couple testified about how they met in middle age and became each other’s “Baby” and “Boo Boo.” How they held hands in public. How Henderson’s blood pressure lowered after she talked about Williams. The landlord tried to cast doubt on the seriousness of their relationship, because mere roommates aren’t entitled to successor rights, and argued Williams wasn’t even living in the apartment full-time before his death.

Last month, Housing Court Judge Jack Stoller ruled that even though Williams and Henderson never married, Henderson is entitled to stay in their two-bedroom apartment at the coveted rent-controlled rate. A rent ledger filed in the court case shows Henderson was paying about $640 in rent a month as of June 2023. Her landlord, who has listed another two-bedroom in the building for more than $2,500 a month, plans to appeal.

“Mr. Williams was the first man she had ever loved who loved her back,” Henderson’s attorney, Patrick Tyrrell, wrote in a post-trial memorandum. “He was her prince.”

Attorneys for Westside Ventura II LLC, which owns the apartment building, did not respond to requests for comment.

The legal case highlights the vulnerabilities that rent-controlled tenants face when they live with non-traditional family members. As city rents climb, many New Yorkers are desperate to find — or hold onto — affordable housing. Meanwhile, the owners of rent-controlled apartments stand to gain thousands of dollars a year in extra income when they can ditch their rent-controlled status and raise the rent for the next tenant.

And many have already done it. Three decades ago, there were more than 100,000 rent-controlled apartments in the city, according to data from the NYC Rent Guidelines Board. In 2023, the latest year for which data is publicly available, there were just over 24,000. When rent-controlled apartments are vacated, they either become rent stabilized or market rate, depending on when the building was constructed and how many units there are, according to the New York Office of Rent Administration.

Henderson declined to comment through her attorney. Her lawyer said in a statement that the judge’s decision ensures Henderson can stay in her affordable home and protects her from the landlord’s goal of evicting her to maximize profits.

“This case is not just about one tenant,” said Tyrrell, supervising attorney at Mobilization for Justice, which provides civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers. “It is part of a pattern of landlords exploiting legal loopholes to erode rent protections and displace long-term residents.”

Rent control is a system that New York City adopted last century to preserve affordable housing and applies to a subset of units built before 1947. These homes are governed by strict limits on how much rent a landlord can charge and strong protections from eviction. Relatives and quasi-family members who live with the primary tenant for an extended period of time can inherit the unit. Rent stabilization, which also regulates rent prices and provides protections for tenants, later replaced rent control and now applies to almost 1 million units.

In 2019, the New York legislature made it more difficult for landlords to lease rent-stabilized apartments at market rate after they become vacant. But those rules don’t apply to rent-controlled units like Henderson’s, said Ronald Languedoc, co-chair of the Housing Court Committee of the New York City Bar. He said that can incentivize owners to get those apartments back on the market, not as a rent-controlled unit.

“There’s a lot more at stake for the landlord in a rent-controlled situation,” he said. “They can raise the rent dramatically.”

Rent control typically only applies for tenants who moved into eligible units before July 1971. But there is an exception for family members who live with the primary tenant in the apartment for an extended period of time.

Henderson had to prove in court that she was eligible to inherit the unit through a legal carve-out for non-traditional family members. According to New York City law, someone can stay in a rent-controlled home after the main tenant dies or moves away if they lived together in the unit for at least one to two years and had a familial relationship — even if it wasn’t a typical one.

The law lays out a list of factors judges can use to determine whether someone is a family member, including how long they were in a relationship with the tenant and whether they shared household expenses.

Languedoc said it’s challenging to prove a relationship to a judge.

“It’s not enough to be a roommate or a casual acquaintance,” he said.

So, over the course of several days in court, Henderson and a few witnesses tried to convince a judge of something typically outside the scope of the legal system: that her love for her late partner was real. After the trial, Judge Stoller found that the two had a “long-term, stable” relationship.

“Ms. Henderson and Mr. Williams were still an emotionally committed couple, given the complexity and messiness of human relationships,” the judge wrote.

Proving a relationship in court

Henderson and Williams met in 1989 in the Dominican Republic, where Henderson was working as an English teacher and Williams was on vacation, according to court records. When Henderson later moved to New Jersey, she testified at trial, the two reconnected and started to talk regularly on the phone. In 1992, she said, Williams invited her to move into his apartment.

For almost two decades, they built a life together in the apartment, according to court records. Henderson did the laundry and cleaned the bathroom. Williams washed the dishes and the kitchen floor. For Sunday dinners, Williams made macaroni with three cheeses and Henderson cooked creamy mashed potatoes. They shared a bedroom and called each other “Baby” and “Boo-boo.”

According to court papers, Henderson testified at trial about their weekend breakfasts at Greek diners in the neighborhood and their trips to the movies for action films, dramas and anything with Denzel Washington or Samuel L. Jackson. She said Williams didn’t like to use banks, so he gave her cash and she paid the bills. When Williams felt sick, Henderson testified, she made chicken noodle soup and rubbed Vicks on his chest and under his nose.

But Henderson wasn’t there when Williams got sick for the last time. He was staying at his daughter’s vacation home in Florida when he suddenly fell ill with a bacterial infection, according to court papers. His daughter, who is a doctor, testified at trial that she called Henderson regularly to update her on Williams’ condition while he spent months in different hospitals. Henderson told the judge that she thought her partner would recover and was preparing for his return. When she learned that Williams had died, she said, she screamed and struggled to catch her breath.

For years after Williams’ death, Henderson continued to pay the rent under his name, according to court papers. In 2017, a new landlord learned that Williams had died years earlier and asked a judge to order Henderson’s removal from the apartment.

In court papers, attorneys for Westside Ventura II LLC argued that Henderson didn’t have the right to stay in the unit, because, they said, she didn’t live with Williams in the apartment for at least a year before his death. The lawyers argued Williams had been living at his daughter’s Florida home, not in Washington Heights.

Henderson had no joint bank account, photos or birthday cards to prove that she lived with Williams. Instead, the judge relied on Henderson’s own words and the testimony of others who observed their relationship.

A friend testified that Henderson used to call Williams “her man” and recalled spending the night with both of them at the apartment, according to court papers. A neighbor said she remembered them walking arm in arm around Washington Heights and eating together at local cafes. Henderson’s primary care physician also testified at trial that Williams was her “sedative.”

He said her blood pressure was often high when she visited his office. But when he would check later in the appointment after talking to her about Williams, her blood pressure would go down, according to court records.

Languedoc said one major complicating factor in Henderson’s case is how long she continued to pay the rent under Williams’ name without letting the landlord know that he had died. But he said that’s a common response for family members in rent-controlled apartments.

“People don’t tell the landlord because they’re afraid and they don’t know what their rights are,” he said. “It shouldn’t be held against them.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated what happens to rent-controlled apartments when they are vacated. Units may become rent stabilized or market rate, depending on when the building was constructed and how many apartments it contains.