156 Hancock Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216

156 Hancock Street is a three-unit, three-story brownstone building located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and is approximately 138 years old. The property has experienced several recurring maintenance issues over recent years, with the most pressing concerns being heat and rodent control. In 2025 alone, there have been multiple heat-related complaints, including a building-wide outage in February 2025, and a rat sighting in May 2025, which prompted an inspection where rat activity was confirmed.

The building has undergone multiple rodent inspections throughout 2023-2025, with varying results including the application of bait in May 2025 and evidence of rat activity in March 2025. The building's maintenance history reveals persistent structural and safety concerns, particularly during 2021. Multiple Housing Maintenance Code violations were documented in April 2021, including issues with self-closing doors, defective concrete steps, and problems with the chimney structure.

The Department of Buildings issued a violation in November 2019 regarding the failure to file an annual boiler inspection report, which remains active. While there have been no reported bedbug infestations in the past eight reporting periods (2019-2025), and the building has generally passed rodent inspections as of 2024, the recurring nature of heat and pest control issues suggests ongoing challenges with building maintenance. Recent inspections in 2024-2025 have shown improvements in some areas, including passing both initial and compliance inspections for rodent control, though the presence of rat activity in early 2025 indicates this remains an area requiring attention.