State legislators are taking aim at bad landlords on and off the city’s worst landlord list as the housing crisis comes to increased prominence. Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman highlighted the need to enforce and expand the fair housing laws so that everyone can feel their reach.
“Unfortunately, far too many New Yorkers, far too many people in my beloved borough of Brooklyn, do not have the same experience,” Zinerman said at a press conference on April 23. “They live with vermin, rat and roach infested apartments. They have no heat sometimes, no hot water.”
Zinerman held the press conference in front of two buildings on Willoughby Avenue in Bed Stuy. The buildings belong to Larry Hirschfield, a landlord who has 19 buildings on the watchlist–16 in Brooklyn and three in Harlem. Ten of Hirshfield’s buildings are in Zinerman’s district. She said it’s tiresome that the same people end up on the list every year and not enough is being done for the tenants who have to live in subpar conditions in the meantime.
“They’re not for the people,” said resident Patricia Morgan, 63, who’s lived in the 611 building since 1993. “Just recently we had a situation where we couldn’t get in the building or out because the lock was broken. People had to go to work and they couldn’t do it. We had to call the fire department to break the lock. That happened maybe three weeks ago and we’ve been emailing whoever we should and they have not been replying.”
Other groups in attendance were the office of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Community Board 3 and 8, Bridge Street Development Corporation, Brooklyn Legal Services (BLS), Crown Heights North Association, and the Brownstoners of Bed Stuy.
“As we look to observe the 56th anniversary of the enactment of the Fair Housing law, what is absolutely apparent [in] reality is that we could have an enactment of a law, but the enforcement of that law is a never ending process,” said Betty E. Staton, president of BLS and a former family court judge. The Federal Fair Housing Act outlawed discriminatory housing practices and required localities around the country to advance fair housing policies.
Zinerman suggested a five-point legislative plan to strengthen the fair housing laws and offer recommendations for reform: expand the Public Advocate’s Worst Landlord List statewide to multiple counties, create new landlord list of “cured” repairs for transparency, mandate property management courses for landlords that appear on the list but have not fixed violations within a certain time period, require that landlords have made repairs and taken courses to get off the list; and if a landlord remains on the list for a second year and has not made repairs, their property becomes eligible for state receivership.
“If you are not curing your violations, your building will go into receivership and the rent that those tenants pay will go directly to HPD [Housing Preservation and Development] so they can help cure because what happens right now is HBD basically picks up the bill,” Zinerman said. “We’re saying you’ve proven that you cannot be responsible for managing property. So we’re going to take it off your hands and we’re going to make sure that our tenants are protected so that they can live in safe and affordable and decent housing.”
Solomon Acevedo, who is the Deputy Public Advocate for Health Equity and Housing, also announced that Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will be launching a partnership this summer to give landlords an opportunity to hear from tenants in a safe community forum. They’ll also be reviewing each building noted on the current landlord watchlist to verify conditions, repairs, security, and any neglected infrastructure.
“It’s not enough to say you’re not a bad actor, you have to show and demonstrate that you’re doing more,” Acevedo said.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.