Public Advocate Letitia James yesterday announced she is co-sponsoring two major pieces of legislation that will improve housing conditions in New York City and crack down on irresponsible landlords.
The two measures are the “Nuisance Abatement” bill and the “No Eviction by Construction” bill.
Manhattan City Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez and Ben Kallos co-sponsored the “Nuisance Abatement” bill, which will the City’s lawyers the authority to bring legal action against landlords for housing based “nuisances” – defined as anything that is deemed “dangerous to human life or detrimental to health.”
Flatlands City Council Member Jumaane Williams co-sponsored the “No Eviction by Construction,” which requires will require the City’s Department of Buildings (DOB) to deny building permits to landlords whose buildings hold a certain number of hazardous violations based on the housing maintenance or construction codes.
Under this legislation, landlords must first provide habitable conditions to their existing tenants before they can be given permits to renovate empty housing units. The bill makes an exception for permits sought to correct Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and Department of Buildings (DOB) violations.
“Too many New Yorkers across the five boroughs are suffering in decrepit apartments, while their landlords cheat the system and refuse to uphold the most basic housing rights. It is time to hold these negligent landlords accountable,” said James, who is prime sponsor of both bills.
“Time and time again, unscrupulous landlords in New York City get away with subjecting tenants to horrible and dangerous living conditions,” said Williams. “As a former tenant organizer, I know first-hand the difficulty of getting repairs from owners who simply refuse to make them. We must prevent the most egregious bad actors from obtaining any building permits until they have remediated the existing violations in their buildings. Landlords cannot continue business as usual until safety and quality of life issues are addressed. ”
The measures follow James’ annual Worst Landlords Watchlist, which was released last November. It is a database of the worst landlords in New York City and is designed to hold those landlords accountable and to empower tenants and advocates. The Watchlist can be found on www.landlordwatchlist.com.
“Safe housing is not a suggestion here in New York, it is a right. This bill [the Nuisance Abatement bill] will secure that right by holding negligent landlords in check to the benefit of New Yorkers most in need, [and] empowering city officials to respond directly when appropriate,” said Rodriguez.
“Our Worst Landlords Watchlist continues to demonstrate the scale of this crisis, but our City needs stronger authority to protect vulnerable tenants and sanction bad behavior,” said James.
