(DNAINFO)  Amy Zimmer — A co-op on West 106th Street that was nursed back to life by tenants who took it over from a deadbeat landlord decades ago has slipped back into disrepair after board members began using it as their own personal piggy bank, according to a lawsuit filed by tenants.

The 54-unit four-building complex at 13-19 W. 106th St. — formally known as 13-19 Duke Ellington Boulevard Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) — became part of acity program designed to give low-income tenants an opportunity for home ownership in derelict rental buildings in 1994 in exchange for tenants running it themselves.

But tenants Glen Grant and Pascally Toussaint said the board has slowly been running it into the ground,  racking up more than $143,000 in back taxes and nearly $70,000 in water and sewer charges, according to public finance records.

Source: Board of Affordable Housing Co-Op Accused of Using Building as Piggy Bank – Upper West Side – DNAinfo.com New York