Jimmy McMillan, the flamboyant New York gubernatorial candidate who gained national attention when he ran on the slogan “The rent is too damn high,” is being evicted from his $872-a-month rent-stabilized New York City apartment.
McMillan, a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran, was slapped with the eviction notice earlier this month, the New York Daily News reports.
Lisco Holdings LLC., the landlord of McMillan’s one-bedroom apartment at 107 St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan’s East Village, claims that McMillan’s primary residence is in Brooklyn.
A city marshal will enforce the eviction Feb. 5.
According to rules established by New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board, tenants are eligible for rent control or rent stabilization only for their primary residence.
But McMillan is defiant.
“They don’t have the authority to evict me,” he told the Daily News, claiming that he uses the Brooklyn property cited by Lisco Holdings as an office.
McMillan claims that Lisco hopes to evict him because they want to rent the apartment to someone else for more money.
And it appears that the landlord would be able to do just that. A real estate ad for an apartment at 109 St. Marks Place — next door to McMillan’s digs — lists average rent in that building at $3,100 a month.
Hoping to stay in the apartment and acting as his own attorney, McMillan has filed suit in Brooklyn Federal Court. He is also seeking $1.3 million in monetary damages, according to the Daily News.
McMillan ran for governor of New York on the Rent Is Too Damn High party ticket in 2010. He also ran for New York City mayor in 2013.
“My main job is to provide a roof over your head, food on the table, and money in your pocket. This is politics as usual — playing the silly game, and it’s not going to happen,” McMillan said during an Oct. 2010 gubernatorial debate. “The rent is too damn high movement, the people I’m here to represent can’t afford to pay their rent.”
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