I’ll See Your 10 And Raise You 190 . . .
HPD renders the Village Voice just that much more irrelevant:
Posted: November 21st, 2007 | Filed under: Insert Muted Trumpet's Sad Wah-Wah HereIn a crackdown on some of the worst landlords in New York City, housing officials have identified 200 of the most poorly maintained apartment buildings and are renewing efforts to force owners to repair hazardous conditions.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development compiled a list of 200 buildings that have 27 or more of the most serious housing code violations and an average of five or more such violations per unit. The citations — for problems like minor leaks and hazardous conditions like lack of heat or hot water — were issued in the past two years, and the owners have either failed to correct the problems or failed to notify the city that they have.
The 200 properties are the first to be identified in the agency’s Alternative Enforcement Program, which was created this year under the new Safe Housing Law and is designed to put increased pressure on landlords to bring thousands of run-down buildings into compliance with the housing maintenance code.
The majority of the listed buildings — 132 — are in Brooklyn. The Bronx had the second most, 52. Many of the buildings are small residential properties, with fewer than 15 units. Visits to a handful of the buildings yesterday illustrated the bleak conditions facing many low-income families. Some tenants had broken stoves and could cook only on electric hot plates. Others lived with gaping holes in bathroom ceilings, mold on the walls, water leaks, faulty electrical connections and rats.