Dear New Yorker,
We wanted to let you know about two major developments in our fight to protect
NYC Council Expands Housing Law for New Yorkers Living in the City's Worst Buildings
This past month the NYC Council passed legislation (Intro. 436-A) to expand and strengthen the City's Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP), which has served as a critical tool in our efforts to protect tenants from hazardous housing conditions
The AEP was established in 2007 with the passage of the NYC Safe Housing Act, a groundbreaking law that has helped to improve the lives of hundreds of tenants by targeting some of the City's worst buildings for badly-needed improvements and repairs.
As part of the program's expansion, buildings with serious cases of mold and vermin infestation - known asthma triggers - will be targeted for clean-up through the AEP.
Additionally, the new law will revise the program's building selection criteria. This will double or possibly triple the number of units captured by this innovative program, while helping us to combat some of the poor living conditions that can cause asthma and other respiratory problems in children and adults.
We'd like to thank everyone, especially NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Rafael E. Cestero, who worked so hard to help make this expansion of the City's protective housing law possible.
Affordable housing shouldn't mean substandard housing. Everyone in our city deserves a safe place to live - and nothing less.
With this newly expanded program, we'll be able to bring more buildings up to code while protecting tenants from harmful and potentially dangerous housing conditions, including those that trigger or exacerbate asthma.
NYC Council, Mayor Bloomberg & HPD Commissioner Cestero Launch New Proactive Housing Initiative
Right now, the City's primary means of identifying problem buildings is through complaints received through calls to 311.
However, during our work on behalf of tenants with HPD, the Council's Task Force on Financially Distressed Rental Housing, saw that this protocol often meant buildings fell into a severe level of disrepair before the city intervened in a comprehensive way. An earlier warning and detection system was needed.
As part of our new Proactive Preservation Initiative, launched last week by the Council, Mayor Bloomberg and HPD Commissioner Cestero, the city will now go out and identify and fix deteriorating housing conditions before they reach a state that endangers the health and safety of residents.
To help us identify distressed buildings, HPD will work with the City Council, the New York City Housing Development Corporation, and New York State Homes and Community Renewal to collect and consolidate data from multiple sources to identify buildings that are actively declining and have the highest likelihood of becoming blighted.
HPD's new 10-person Enforcement Bureau will then go in and conduct top-to-bottom inspections of these buildings.
Based on the bureau's findings and other relevant data, HPD will determine the appropriate course of action. This might include working with a building owner and providing rehabilitation loan, or stepping up code enforcement actions against irresponsible or absentee owners.
To ensure that our Proactive Preservation Initiative succeeds, the Council and the Bloomberg Administration will develop ways to authorize the City to sell liens that are placed on properties when irresponsible landlords fail to make repairs and the City has to. Not only will this encourage landlords to make the repairs themselves, but it will also help save taxpayer money by allowing the City to sell the liens to a third party collector.
We would like to thank Mayor Bloomberg, Commissioner Rafael Cestero, and Council Members Inez Dickens, Annabel Palma and Fernando Cabrera for the continued work that they're doing to help prevent the further loss and deterioration of the City's rental housing stock.
By identifying and addressing deteriorating conditions early on, we can help save these buildings before it's too late and keep New Yorkers safely in their homes.
Earlier this month, the Daily News ran a story about a landlord in
Unfortunately, we know that this isn't an isolated and rare situation. There are far too many landlords, driven by profit and rent regulation vacancy decontrol rules that incentivize this type of harassment, attempting to push tenants out.
If you're experiencing systematic harassment by your landlord, please contact the City Council at (212) 788-7210 or speakerquinn@council.nyc.gov .
Thanks for allowing us to share this important news with you. We'll be sure to keep you updated on any new developments in our fight to protect tenants as they occur.
Sincerely,
Christine C. Quinn
Speaker
NYC Council
Erik Martin Dilan
Chair, Housing & Buildings Committee
NYC Council
Rosie Mendez
Public Housing Committee Chair & Lead Sponsor of Intro. 436-A
NYC Council
Letitia James
Co-sponsor of the Safe Housing Act
NYC Council
Gale A. Brewer
Co-sponsor of the Safe Housing Act
NYC Council