A Queens lawmaker introduced on Thursday a legislative package aimed at bolstering tenant protections by requiring the city to take legal action against landlords who fail to make repairs in a given timeframe.
The package from City Council Speaker Shekar Krishnan (D) also includes measures that would allow tenants to remain closer to their buildings when they are under construction due to a city vacate order and to collect their belongings from their homes after leaving the premises.
Krishnan, the bills’ primary sponsor, said they are intended to address what he described as the pervasive issue of landlords dragging their feet on making repairs after buildings are damaged and hit with city vacate orders. He said building owners use delayed repairs as a tactic to remove units from rent-stabilization and make them market rate.
“One of the most urgent housing problems we see across the city is the way in which landlords deliberately destroy their buildings to vacate tenants from their home or delay repairs after a fire, also to keep tenants out of their home,” Krishnan said, in an interview. “All of these tactics effectively evict tenants from their home. They’re illegal and they result in many units being removed from rent stabilization.”
Krishnan charged the city does not do enough to help tenants who have been kicked out of their apartments due to vacate orders and the legislation is meant to fix that.
“You’d think that all the city agencies would descend together and make sure tenants have the help they need, so they can return home quickly, but the exact opposite has happened,” Krishnan said. “Tenants can’t get back in the building, they can’t get their belongings and they’re out oftentimes for months and really years.”
The legislation comes after a partial building collapse in the Bronx late last year displaced over 100 tenants from their apartments due to a city-issued partial vacate order.
Specifically, the bill requiring the city to take legal action against landlords over repairs, Intro. 608, would mandate the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) launch what is known as an Article 7-A proceeding if landlords do not complete their work within five days, Krishnan said.
The proceedings involve HPD appointing a nonprofit administrator to oversee building repairs and collect rent. The agency uses Article 7-A’s quite infrequently, according to Krishnan — something which he would like to change.
“What this bill does is require HPD to bring that legal action, working with the tenant, to make sure that if the landlord fails to do the job, another administrator brings the building back up to code, so tenants can come home,” the council member said.
The same bill would also require the agency to send a team of “relocation specialists” to a building that has been vacated to help tenants retrieve their belongings from their apartments after they initially leave.
Another measure in the package would require HPD to relocate vacated tenants to homeless shelters in their current community districts, rather than placing them in other areas or boroughs. And a third would direct the agency to issue an annual report on its use of its “special repair fund.”
“HPD supports ensuring the health and safety of all New Yorkers in their homes,” said HPD spokesperson William Fowler when asked about the bills.
“We look forward to reviewing the package and are working with the council,” he added.
