Gabrielle Vines lives in an apartment in Fort George that’s both cluttered and empty. There are giant storage bins filled with her grandmother’s possessions, an old washing machine that’s no longer in use and a closet stuffed with photo albums. But Vines has hesitated to make the space her own.
“I’ve been scared to put in any major furniture, like a new couch or coffee table or anything, or a TV, because at any moment I could just kind of be evicted,” she said one evening in late March.
The rent-stabilized unit belonged to her grandmother, Gisela Venta-Perez. Vines, 22, is the fourth generation in her family to call the apartment home. She claims she lived there with Venta-Perez for about two-and-a-half years, until her grandmother’s death last spring. Now, Vines wants to stay in the apartment, which she said Venta-Perez rented for about $900 a month. But the owner of the building said she doesn’t meet the strict criteria to take on a deceased relative’s rent-stabilized lease…