María Quintanilla has lived for 16 years in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with no shower, a ceiling that’s about to fall in, broken windows, a sealed emergency exit and to have bed bugs in the bedrooms; she even claims to have been assaulted by her landlord’s representative.

According to the findings of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) project by the Academy of Urban Planning, 47-year old Quintanilla, originally from El Salvador, is one of the many victims of local landlords who are unwilling to fix up buildings inhabited mostly by poor immigrants, hoping to make way for people with more resources to come live there.

Dozens of young people joined Quintanilla, community leaders and other tenants with similar problems, in a protest to challenge the landlords who have verbally and physically mistreated them.

Yelling out, “Fix it!” and “We’re here and we’re not leaving!” the group gathered in front of the building at 198 Knickerbocker Avenue, a building with over 100 violations, according to Javier Valdés, coordinator of special projects for the New York Immigration Coalition.

“The super of the building asked me why they should fix it, if we never even saw toilets in the countries we come from,” said Quintanilla, describing the conditions where she lives with her 13-, 14-, and 15-years old sons. “The super also said the bed bugs would go away if we ate them with tortillas.”

Three months ago when Quintanilla asked Carla Guevara to renew her lease, she was told that she would have to give her $200 in cash for the lease to be renewed. When Quintanilla refused, she says Guevara hit her in the face.

“I’m tired of being humiliated and mistreated. I’m frightened by their threats, but I’m breaking my silence to say enough already! I want to live in a decent apartment,” said Quintanilla.

Guevara, who lives close to the building, was not in her apartment to give a statement, according to one of her sons, who did not want to open the door.

“Through this project we found that Bushwick has the highest concentration of building violations in all of New York City. This building has more than 100 violations, and Quintanilla’s apartment has more than 15 violations,” said Jannelly Lahoz, who works with the community organization “Make the Road by Walking.”

Valdés urged people who have been abused to call 311 and report their landlords.