Strict Illegal Home Conversions May Add to the City’s Homeless Problem
Thousands of city tenants can be forced out of their homes with no long-term housing alternatives as the city cracks down on landlords who violate New York City’s Department of Buildings (DOB) construction guidelines.
Landlords who illegally convert buildings to create additional housing without obtaining permits from DOB now face huge fines. The health and fire risks associated with such practices pose a threat to those who occupy such housing. Councilmember Vincent Gentile, serving Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights sponsored and helped pass the Aggravated Illegal Home Conversion Bill this past May, to combat the issue. The bill will aggressively fine landlords who violate the city’s building ordinances.
At the same time, Gentile noted 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 b
y illegal home conversions. While the new law is welcomed by some local residents, 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.
Nancy Tong, who ran an unsuccessful attempt to win the district’s city council seat and who serves as the community relation’s director for Assemblymember Bill Colton, also spoke to 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 Nancy. “It is up to the city to support the use of these locations for the community’s greatest needs — and that is affordable housing.”
In addition, Gentile, along with civic leaders, attributes 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.
Agencies such as the Red Cross have stepped in to provide one-to-two day temporary shelter to tenants who must vacate. Tenants are then referred to the Housing and Preservation Development agency to secure additional temporary housing, according to Michael Devulpillieres of the Red Cross.
This year, the Red Cross provided assistance to nearly 1300 residents displaced because of fires and 495 because of mandatory vacates throughout the 5 boroughs. In Brooklyn, the number was closer with 350 residents displaced by fires and 170 displaced by mandatory vacates said Devulpillieres of the Red Cross –– although 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 Josephine Beckmann, the CB10 chairperson. This year CB10 has clocked in 448 of illegal home conversion complaints as of Oct. 10.
“If there was more affordable housing do you think those people would want to live there?” said Tong. “Of course not.”
