NYC DOE staff members sued over unpaid rent of Dominican teachers

A group of city Department of Education administrators are being sued for $24,000 in unpaid rent by the owners of a Bronx home where teachers brought in from the Dominican Republic were forced to live.

ADASA, the Association of Dominican American Supervisors and Administrators, rented a duplex at 1820 Pilgrim Ave., then demanded that five teachers and a woman’s husband pay $1,350 to $1,450 a month for single rooms while sharing a kitchen and a bathroom.

But DOE administrators who run ADASA — currently under investigation — haven’t paid the $8,000 monthly rent since November, landlords Yuping Chen and Yanlai Lin said in a lawsuit filed in court. the 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 supported 11 other Dominican teachers in similar conditions.

A third building where DOE administrators put Dominican teachers, a co-op on Marion Avenue in the Bronx, belonged to the late mother of Emmanuel Polanco, ADASA’s first vice president and director of MS 80 before he not be taken out of school. in October.

In December, city and federal agencies began investigating complaints that Dominican teachers were being exploited and threatened by ADASA.

Teachers told the Post last week that they had not been informed of the progress of the investigation.

The 19 teachers housed by ADASA have since moved.