(Gothamist) David Brand, February 21, 2023

Hugo Santana and his wife were stranded in Ecuador at the peak of the pandemic. That’s grounds for an eviction from their $897-a-month rent-stabilized apartment, according to their new corporate landlord.

A couple stranded in Ecuador at the peak of the COVID pandemic could soon lose the rent-stabilized Hell’s Kitchen apartment they’ve called home for 43 years because the landlord says they were away for too long.

The new owner of the West 47th Street co-op apartment where Hugo Santana, 70, and his wife Gloria, 80, have lived since 1980 claims their absence violates the terms of their rent-stabilized lease and is grounds for eviction from their three-bedroom apartment, for which they pay $897.44 a month, according to court records.

No judge has yet ruled on residency challenges against so-called “COVID refugees,” but housing attorneys argue that an eviction could set a chilling precedent. Rent stabilization laws permit tenants to spend long stretches away from their apartments, so long as they have valid reasons, like caring for a sick family member.

The Santanas were gone for 13 months as a result of the “impossibility and impracticality” of traveling during a global pandemic, they say in court papers.

Santana said he‘s lived on the same block since moving to New York City from Ecuador five decades ago, holding on as the neighborhood around him surged in popularity and price, declining buy-out offers from a previous landlord, and fixing much of the apartment himself. The family’s combined annual income is about $33,000.

The couple raised four children in the home, marking a wall near the living room to track the heights of their 13 grandchildren through the years. The back bedroom that his granddaughters share is decorated with stickers, posters and mathematics tables.

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