JAMES' STORY

James Panitz

You don’t have to be old to come into Steve Croman’s cross hairs. In 2012 a beautiful child, James Panitz, two years old and suffering with rhabdomyosarcoma cancer, was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy when Croman decided to almost double their rent from $2,100.00 to $4,100 a month in his East First St. building. His parents burdened with exorbitant hospital costs asked Croman if he could delay or forego the hefty rent increase during his treatments, but Croman never to let something like this interfere with the rent hike, refused. His rep said, “ We are running a business and not a charity.” Unable to pay both the medical bills and the rent increase, they were forced to move.