Modern Brownstone living1

We applied to rent this flat and were finally offered the one just above in the same house for my family (2 adults+ 3 teens) and a friend of us coming from Chicago. It's true that the Bedford Stuyvesant neighbourghood did not look very safe/pleasant at first sight but we did not encounter any problem even when coming back after midnight with the metro. We even had a very pleasant breakfast at the Peach's which is just round the corner and my husband mentioned a bar that looked good in the main street but we did not have time to try it. It still takes at least 30 min by metro to reach Manhattan from there. Regarding the house and the flat: even if there was some kind of architectural charm, the general state of maintenance and cleanliness was VERY disappointing: a part of the living room's ceiling fall down on the floor and the sofa during our stay and fortunately we were not in when it happened (somebody could have been seriously hurt if we'd been in as the sofa was meant to be used as a bed!), the floors and kitchen looked rather dirty (with some devices to catch the 'bugs'!), the front door was as if it had been already broken and not properly repaired. We've been offered one free night out of 5 to compensate for the ceiling collapse and the mess we had after that; this was really the minimum that could be done. My friend had to sleep 4 nights with one of my kids as we did not feel like using the living room any more (and anyway the sheets on the sofa have not been changed after the collapse and the quick and dirty repair). Without a proper renovation, I definitely do not recommend this flat.

We took the subway to the Brownstone apartment, off the Kingston stop from Manhatten at 12:00 noon. The three-block walk felt unsafe, especially walking down Fulton. Before I went, but after the deposit, I did check the crime report for the area and knew there had been three shootings in the last seven months. I should have backed out at that point but thought I would give it a try. MacDonough did not feel particularly unsafe, and neither did the Utica stop or the walk down Lewis. But I would never want to walk them at night.
As for the inside, we arrived before they had finished cleaning from the guests who had been there for two weeks. It was pretty rough, with a whole in an outside door that could have easily been opened from the outside. The apartment did not look like the pictures on the Homeaway website.
I know the area is trying to revitalize, but at the same time families need to be able to trust a website.
We canceled and did not stay.

The owner is very responsive to all emails. Although we did not see him there, his assistant was there and helpfull for check-in, check-out, and providing missing things (not enough dishes for 9 people), but do not expect advices for visiting NY or the neighbourhood.
The place was clean (but not perfectly), beds were good and clean. The ground floor has no ventilation possibilities (exept a fan) => It was quite humid for the 5 of us that were sleeping there.
It was nice to enjoy a bbc in the backyard (foresee something against mosquitos!).