Thousands of city tenants forced out of their homes due to a new city law cracking down on landlords who violate New York City’s Department of Buildings (DOB) construction guidelines will add to the homeless crises, critics of the measure are saying.
The pushback comes against City Councilmember Vincent Gentile’s (D-Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights) sponsored Aggravated Illegal Home Conversion Bill. The measure, passed last May, in part to curtail the growing number of illegal home conversions in his district.
The legislation aggressively fines landlords who violate the city’s building ordinances, and illegally convert buildings to create additional housing without obtaining permits from the DOB . The bill’s motivation included addressing health and fire risks associated with such practices that pose a threat to those who occupy such housing.
At the same time, Gentile noted in the passage of the bill that he would be working to ensure that tenants forced to vacate their homes will be assisted with relocation efforts. The Councilmember’s office echoed the same sentiment last week when a representative said they were working on an agreement with the city that would use the fines collected from landlords to assist affected tenants.
However, Gentile and the Mayor’s Office have yet to announce such an arrangement despite the law taking effect on Sept. 30. When contacted for an update on the agreement, the Mayor’s Office declined to comment.
The new bill will increase mandatory vacates in areas overrun by illegal home conversions. While some local residents welcome the new law, enforcement will likely displace hundreds of residents during a time when the city struggles to provide affordable housing for its 8.5 million residents.
As landlords rack up fines, it is more likely that tenants will be forced to vacate their homes. The problem has been a source of contention in Southern Brooklyn especially, as the area becomes home to a rapidly growing Asian American community –– almost double the amount living in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
In crafting the bill, Gentile, along with local civic leaders also attributed school overcrowding, strains on infrastructure and increasingly littered streets in Southern Brooklyn to illegal home conversions. Residents claim the recent influx of Chinese immigrants make up the bulk of tenants that occupy illegally converted homes.
But Democratic District Leader Nancy Tong, who recently ran unsuccessfully for the district’s city council seat, and who serves as the community relation’s director for Assemblymember Bill Colton (D-Bensonhurst, Bath Beach), said the measure, while well-intentioned, does not take into account the affordable housing crisis plaguing the city.
“I have always believed that in order to combat illegal conversions, elected officials need to make it a priority to identify properties where affordable housing can be developed,” said Tong. “It is up to the city to support the use of these locations for the community’s greatest needs — and that is affordable housing.”
Currently, residents displaced from the illegal conversion bill, are serviced from such non-profits as the Red Cross, which provide one-to-two day temporary shelter to tenants who must vacate. Tenants are then referred to the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation Development (HPD) to secure additional temporary housing, according to Michael Devulpillieres of the Red Cross.
This year, the Red Cross provided assistance to nearly 1,300 residents displaced because of fires and 495 because of mandatory vacates throughout the 5 boroughs.
Devulpillieres said in Brooklyn the number was closer with 350 residents displaced by fires and 170 displaced by mandatory vacates. Although Devulpillieres said he could not specify how many vacates resulted because of a violation to the illegal home conversion law, the new bill could cause that number to double in the coming months.
Community Board 10, which represents Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Ft. Hamilton, received more than 550 complaints on illegal home conversions last year, more than double the amount since 2013, according to CB 10 Chair Josephine Beckmann. This year CB10 has clocked in 448 of illegal home conversion complaints as of Oct. 10.
But Tong insists the homeless crisis will likely increase in the district and citywide if the measure doesn’t have some kind of safety valve in it to address the creation of more local affordable housing.
“If there was more affordable housing do you think those people would want to live there [in illegal conversion housing]?” said Tong. “Of course not.”
